The situation in the northern Gaza Strip is apocalyptic as Israel carries out a military offensive against Hamas militants in the area, senior UN officials have warned, quoted by "Reuters" and News.bg.
"The entire Palestinian population in northern Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, hunger and violence," said a statement signed by the heads of UN agencies, including the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme.
Israel launched a broad military offensive in northern Gaza earlier this month. The United States said it was monitoring its ally's actions and sought to show it had no "starvation policy" in the region.
"Humanitarian aid cannot cope with the scale of the needs due to access restrictions. Essential life-saving supplies are not available. Aid workers are not safe to do their work and are blocked by Israeli forces and the insecurity of reaching people in need," they said.
They called on all warring parties in Gaza to protect civilians and called on Israel to "end its assault on Gaza and the humanitarian organizations trying to help".
Israel's mission to the United Nations in New York declined to comment on the statement. Israel's UN ambassador, Danny Danon, told the Security Council last month that the problem in Gaza was not a lack of aid, saying more than a million tons had been delivered in the past year. He accused Hamas of stealing the aid. Hamas has repeatedly rejected Israeli accusations and says Israel is to blame for the shortages.
On Monday, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Management Agency said about 100,000 people were stranded in Jabaliya, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza without medical or food supplies. Reuters could not independently verify the information.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power spoke with Israel's ambassador to the United States on Friday as a deadline looms for Washington to improve the situation or face potential restrictions on U.S. military aid.
The United States urged Israel in a letter dated Oct. 13 to take steps within 30 days.
The third phase of a delayed polio vaccination campaign in Gaza will begin on Saturday, aid groups said on Friday, after implementation was hampered by Israeli bombing, mass displacement and a lack of access.
The polio campaign began on Sept. 1 after the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in August that a baby had been partially paralyzed by the type 2 poliovirus, the first such case in the territory since 25 years.
A humanitarian pause for the campaign was agreed, but WHO and UNICEF said the area covered by the agreement had been significantly reduced since the previous pause in September and would now only cover Gaza City.
The latest phase of the campaign aimed to reach some 119,000 children under 10 in northern Gaza with a second dose of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2). However, achieving that target is now unlikely due to access restrictions, the WHO said.
The Israeli army said on Friday it had killed a senior Hamas official Iz al-Din Kassab, describing him as one of the last high-ranking Hamas members responsible for coordinating with other groups in Gaza in an airstrike in Khan Younis.
Iz al-Din Kassab is the latest in a string of high-ranking officials from the Iranian-backed Hamas group to be killed by Israel in response to the October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the current regional tensions.
Last month, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the group's 2023 cross-border incursion, was killed in Gaza.
Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran, hours after attending the inauguration ceremony of Iran's new president.
Hamas' military commander Mohammed Deif was killed in the July 13 airstrike in the Khan Yunis area, although Israel announced and confirmed his death a month later.
On October 14, 2024, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that Samer Abu-Daka, the head of Hamas's air force, had been killed in the latest strikes.
In late September, the Palestinian group Hamas confirmed that its leader in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu al-Amin, had been killed in an Israeli strike that hit his home in a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre. His wife, son, and daughter also died with him.
On the same day, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced that three of its leaders had also been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Kola neighborhood, in central Beirut.