The United Nations confirmed on Tuesday that Israeli forces are systematically preventing access to Gaza’s residents in need of assistance, complicating the delivery of aid to a war-torn area not governed by any law.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), stated in a press briefing in Geneva that it has become nearly impossible to carry out operations to evacuate the sick and wounded and deliver aid in northern Gaza, with the situation becoming increasingly difficult in the southern part of the territory.
In recent weeks, the Israeli occupation has blocked all planned aid convoys to the north. The last aid allowed entry was on January 23, according to the World Health Organization.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that even convoys that had been previously cleared and inspected by Israeli authorities were repeatedly blocked or came under fire.
Laerke highlighted an incident that occurred last Sunday when Israeli forces prevented a convoy organized by the World Health Organization and the Palestinian Red Crescent from evacuating patients from the besieged Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, detaining several medics for seven hours.
Despite prior coordination of all staff and vehicles with the Israeli side, Israeli forces stopped the WHO-led convoy upon leaving the hospital, preventing its movement for several hours.
The convoy was carrying 24 patients and was forced to leave 31 others at Al-Amal Hospital, which ceased operations after being targeted by forty attacks last month alone, resulting in at least 25 fatalities.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced a 48-hour suspension of its operations in Gaza because Israel, the occupying power, failed to ensure the safety of its emergency medical teams.
Laerke emphasized that the United Nations would continue to remind Israeli forces that they are obliged, at the very least, to facilitate the “safe, smooth, and swift passage” of aid missions upon notification.
The ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7 has led to the death of approximately 30,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, in an ongoing toll.
