The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warned Tuesday that aid deliveries to Gaza have fallen to their lowest levels in months.
It described the situation in the northern part of the territory as “catastrophic” and warned of imminent famine.
“Aid entering the Gaza Strip is at its lowest level in months”, said UNRWA emergencies officer Louise Wateridge via video link from Gaza. “The average for October was 37 trucks a day into the entire Gaza Strip… that is for 2.2 million people”.
The warning comes as Israel faces a Wednesday deadline from the U.S. government to increase humanitarian aid access or risk cuts to military assistance. Israel said it had delivered hundreds of food packets to northern Gaza, though UNRWA reported that no food had been permitted to enter the besieged northern area for an entire month.
“Children are dying. People are dying every day”, Wateridge said, describing testimonies from northern Gaza as painting “an endlessly horrific” picture becoming “more critical” by the hour. “Hospitals have been bombed, the doctors inform us that they have run out of blood supplies, they have run out of medicine… there are bodies in the streets”.
A UN-backed assessment conducted over the weekend indicated that famine was imminent in northern Gaza, where repeated UN requests for access have been denied.
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