The United Nations food agency has suspended deliveries amid Israeli gunfire and a “collapse of internal order” in northern Gaza.
The United Nations food agency has suspended aid supplies to northern Gaza, citing Israeli shootings and “total chaos and violence due to the breakdown of civil order” in the area.
Tuesday's latest suspension raises fears of starvation in northern Gaza, where aid has been almost completely cut off since late October amid Israel's devastating war against the enclave.
The United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) said the decision was “not taken lightly” as people risked starving to death. But he added: “We must ensure the safety and security of delivering vital food aid and the safety of those who receive it.”
The agency announced it had suspended deliveries to the north for the first time three weeks ago after a support truck collided with a strike. The company said it tried to resume deliveries this week but faced gunfire on its convoy on Sunday and Monday and crowds of hungry people stripping them of goods and beating drivers.
Footage from the operation seen by Al Jazeera shows Palestinians fleeing for cover amid clouds of gunfire and smoke bombs.
Witnesses said one man was killed and many others injured in the attack.
The video also shows Palestinian children scooping up flour that spilled from the ground after one of the bags tore.
WFP, which had previously warned that 2.3 million people in Gaza were living in famine-like conditions, said its team had “witnessed unprecedented levels of despair” in the north over the past two days. .
The agency said it was working to resume deliveries as soon as possible, calling for increased security for its staff, a “significant increase in food supplies” and the opening of a transit point for direct aid from Israel to northern Gaza.
The suspension of aid to the north comes amid a sharp decline in the number of aid trucks entering all of Gaza. The average number of aid trucks entering Gaza fell from 140 a day in January to 60 a day in February, according to statistics from the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Israel, which controls entry points into Gaza, has only one border to the enclave, despite growing international pressure to provide humanitarian aid, including an interim ruling by the International Court of Justice. Established.
The United Nations agency said Israeli red tape was slowing the passage of trucks, while right-wing Israeli protesters argued that aid should not be given to the Palestinian people and blocked Kerem, the entrance to southern Gaza. Shalom stopped the truck from passing.
OCHA spokesperson Eli Kaneko said that even when the supplies arrived in Gaza, UN staff and aid groups were unable to receive them at transit points due to a “lack of security and breakdown of law and order.” Aid agencies say this includes Israel's targeted killing of a Gaza police commander guarding a convoy of trucks.
Norwegian Refugee Council spokesman Shane Roe said the conditions for humanitarian workers in Gaza were “unacceptable”.
“In any other situation, humanitarian workers would have withdrawn at this point, because it's too dangerous,” she told Al Jazeera.
“Due to Israeli targeting of the convoy, Israeli targeting of the police on the ground to protect the convoy, and of course the desperation due to the lack of incoming aid, there is no guarantee of safety for humanitarian workers.”
Meanwhile, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said Israeli authorities had rejected 51% of planned missions to deliver aid to northern Gaza.
“Food insecurity in northern Wadi Gaza has reached an extremely critical stage,” he said in a post on X.
🛑 51% of missions are planned @UNRWA Humanitarian partners delivering and assessing aid to northern regions 📍#Gaza This year they were denied access by Israeli authorities.
Food insecurity in northern Wadi Gaza has reached critical levels #Access denied pic.twitter.com/YeKsZpKh4E
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) February 20, 2024
At least 29,092 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, have been killed since October 7, when Gaza's ruler Hamas launched a surprise attack in southern Israel, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
Approximately 1,139 people were killed in Hamas attacks in Israel.