Half a million people in Gaza are at risk of starvation and all 2.3 million suffer from acute food insecurity, aid organizations report.

The head of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has warned that there is famine in Gaza, while aid agencies are struggling to deliver food to the north of the enclave.

Humanitarian aid has not reached the people of the northern Gaza Strip for more than a month, Philippe Lazzarini said on Monday.

“The last time UNRWA was able to deliver food aid to northern Gaza was on January 23,” Lazzarini wrote on social media on Saturday.

Aid groups claim Israel has delayed deliveries. Tel Aviv denies this accusation and is preparing for it Report to the International Criminal Court (ICH) on the measures it has taken to avert suffering in the besieged enclave.

Lazzarini said calls to allow food distribution inside the Gaza Strip amid ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hamas had been rejected or “fell on deaf ears.”

The UN official warned of an “imminent famine” and said the situation was becoming a “man-made disaster”.

The last time @UNRWA was able to deliver food aid to the north #Gaza was on January 23rd.

Since then together with others @AND We have agencies:
🛑 Warned of impending famine.
🛑 We have appealed for regular humanitarian access.
🛑 Explained that famine can be averted if more food…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) February 25, 2024

At least 500,000 people are facing famine, while almost the entire population of Gaza, 2.3 million people, is suffering from acute food insecurity. characters from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

On Sunday, a two-month-old Palestinian boy died of hungerAccording to reports.

Obstacles

Israel – which controls Gaza border crossings – has opened only one entry point into the enclave since the start of the war and has introduced “endless control procedures” for the passage of trucks, UN agencies said.

Right-wing Israeli protesters also blocked aid convoys at the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) border crossing into the southern Gaza Strip, saying no aid should be given to the Palestinian people.

According to OCHA, the average number of trucks entering Gaza daily since February 9 was about 55, compared to 500 before the conflict began.

The agency reports that the influx has continued to decline sharply in recent days. Palestinian police have stopped escorting them after at least eight of them were killed in Israeli strikes in southern Rafah, according to UNRWA and US officials.

This has prompted others to abandon their posts, paving the way for a breakdown in civil order. Last week the World Food Program (WFP) announced this Suspension of aid deliveries to northern Gaza after crowds of hungry people stole goods and beat a driver.

Convoys were also met with gunfire, verified videos on social media showed Palestinians flee for cover amid the sound of gunfire and clouds of smoke from smoke bombs. Palestinian children can also be seen picking up spilled flour from the ground.

The lack of Israeli aid makes deliveries even more difficult, UN organizations say.

According to OCHA, most aid operations for the northern Gaza Strip between January 1 and February 15 – 39 out of 77 – were rejected by Israel and less than 20 percent were supported by Israeli authorities.

‘No limit’

However, Israel denies that it is hindering aid deliveries.

“There is no limit to the amount of humanitarian assistance that can be sent to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and the northern Gaza Strip,” Israel’s Coordination Office for its Activities in Palestine (COGAT) wrote in a post on X.

Israel must report to the International Court of Justice on Monday what it did to pave the way for increased deliveries of humanitarian aid – one of the measures Israel was ordered to comply with by the UN’s top court last month to prevent genocide in Gaza .

But Human Rights Watch said on Monday that Israel was not complying with the court’s order, citing a 30% decline in the average number of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip daily in recent weeks.

“The Israeli government has simply ignored the court’s ruling and in some ways even increased its repression, including further blocking life-saving aid,” said Omar Shakir, the agency’s director for Israel and Palestine.

Meanwhile, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned of a full-scale Israeli military operation in the southern city Rafah would “put the final nail in the coffin” of aid programs in Gaza.