New York - Saba:
The United Nations announced that 85% of its attempts to coordinate aid convoys and humanitarian visits to the northern Gaza Strip were rejected or obstructed by the ‘Israeli’ occupation authorities last month.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it submitted 98 requests to the ‘Israeli’ occupation authorities for permission to cross through the checkpoint along the Gaza Valley, but only 15 of them were allowed through, according to UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Dujarric noted that OCHA is ‘concerned about the fate of Palestinians remaining in northern Gaza as the blockade there continues, and urgently calls on Israel to open the area to humanitarian operations to the extent necessary given the enormous needs.’
‘Over the past three days, teams from OCHA, UN human rights and demining agencies and other humanitarian groups visited nine sites in Gaza City to assess the needs of hundreds of displaced families, many of whom are returning to northern Gaza,’ he said.
In a new report published on Monday, OCHA said that humanitarian organisations submitted 50 requests to the Israeli occupation authorities to enter northern Gaza in October; 33 requests were rejected and eight were accepted, but faced obstacles, including delays that prevented them from completing their missions, according to the spokesperson.
This comes at a time when the undeclared famine is intensifying in northern Gaza as more than 50 days have passed since the Israeli occupation forces prevented the entry of any aid or goods to the hundreds of thousands of besieged residents there, who, according to UN agencies, are subjected to the most violent genocidal campaign to eliminate them by killing and forcible displacement.
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