2024-01-16T05:09:49+00:00
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/ The heads of three major UN agencies warned that Gaza urgently needs more aid or else its desperate residents will suffer widespread famine and disease, while authorities in the Strip reported that the death toll in the war between Israel and Hamas had exceeded 24,000.
While the heads of UN agencies did not point the finger directly at Israel, they said aid deliveries were being hampered by the opening of too few border crossings, the slow process of screening trucks and goods heading into Gaza, and the continuing fighting across the Strip – issues that Israel plays a decisive role in it.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the militant group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, has led to unprecedented devastation in the small coastal enclave and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe that has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and displaced more than a quarter of them. And famine, according to the United Nations.
A day after the White House said it was time for Israel to scale back its military offensive, the World Food Programme, UNICEF and the World Health Organization said new entry routes into Gaza must be opened, and more trucks must be allowed into each day. Aid workers and those seeking help must be allowed to move around safely.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that UN agencies and partners “cannot effectively provide humanitarian assistance while Gaza is subjected to such violent, widespread and sustained bombardment.”
He said that the killing of 152 UN staff in Gaza since the beginning of the war is “the largest loss of life in the history of our organization.”