Gaza City lifelines collapsing, UN aid agency warns

The warning comes as the head of UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA renewed his call for foreign journalists to be allowed into the Gaza Strip to counter the “information war”, which includes denial that famine has taken root and is spreading.

On Gaza City, OCHAreported that in just five days, 11 UNRWA premises serving as emergency shelters for about 11,000 people there have been damaged after taking direct or indirect hits.

Displacement on the rise

More than one million people across the Strip have been displaced since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas collapsed in mid-March, the agency said.

Numbers are rising fast, with some 200,000 displacements recorded from northern to southern Gaza over the past month alone, including 56,000 since Sunday.

Despite heavy restrictions, the UN and partners are doing everything possible to reach people across the devastated enclave with life-saving support.

Hot meals and malnutrition treatment

Humanitarians collected over 12,500 metric tonnes of wheat flour, food parcels and bulk supplies from the Israeli-controlled crossings during the first half of this month.

They also served nearly 560,000 meals daily through 116 kitchens and provided 10,000 loaves of bread to people moving to the south.

Teams have continued to screen children for malnutrition and enrol them for treatment.

UN children’s agency UNICEF dispatched over 200,000 packs of nutrient-rich baby food to aid partners, enough to support over 63,000 infants and young children for two weeks.

Furthermore, UNICEF provided 10,000 boxes of high-energy biscuits, enough to assist more than 10,000 acutely malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women for a month.

Healthcare supplies

To address the healthcare crisis, nearly 900 pallets of essential medical supplies were collected from crossings between Gaza and Israel and are being delivered to health facilities.

Teams also dispatched 120 intensive care unit (ICU) and emergency beds, as well as four anaesthesia machines, to Al Aqsa hospital in Deir Al-Balah.

Humanitarians have also supported desalination efforts and trucked water across all parts of the Gaza Strip. This is in addition to scaling up solid waste collection and the safe disposal of some 1,300 cubic metres of trash daily and distributing items such as 1,000 hygiene kits.

Support for the starving, ‘systematically blocked’

OCHA again repeated its message that the aid currently reaching people falls far short of the immense needs.

“Opportunities to support starving people are being systematically blocked. Every week, new restrictions are imposed,” the agency said.

For example, Zikim crossing – the only one that goes directly from Israel to the north, where famine has been confirmed – has been shut since the weekend.

“Israeli authorities have also classified some food items, such as peanut butter, as ‘luxuries’ not allowed in, leaving large amounts of already-procured aid stuck outside Gaza. On top of this, inspection rules vary by route, creating unpredictability and needless delays.”

Humanitarian movements inside Gaza are also being blocked. On Wednesday, Israel denied three of 14 confirmed movements, two of which were to bring food to the north.

Media and disinformation ‘battleground’

Also on Thursday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Phillipe Lazzarini issued a fresh call for international media to be allowed into the Gaza Strip which “has been the battleground of a fierce and rampant information war.”

Posting on X, he said “dis-information continues to be used as a tool to distract from the atrocities in the war-torn enclave.”

He said UNRWA was the first target, followed by other UN agencies, the media and health institutions, while “the recent denial of famine in Gaza as well as of the conclusions of the UN commission of inquiry released this week are the latest examples.”

The aim is to both undermine assessments and analysis by experts and promote narratives denying atrocities and dehumanizing Palestinians.

“Meanwhile, the heroic work of Palestinian journalists continues against all odds as the Israeli military operations expand,” he said.

“It’s time to let international journalists into Gaza to support their Palestinian colleagues before their voices are also silenced. Time to report independently on events.”