The United Nations has stressed that aid operations must remain impartial and independent following reports suggesting that aid distribution in Gaza might involve the Israeli military or American companies.
A UN spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, reiterated the organisation’s commitment to humanitarian principles. “I can’t speak to the veracity of what was reported. What I can tell you is, whether it’s in Gaza or anywhere else in the world, the UN’s humanitarian operations will only work based on our principles of humanity, of impartiality and of independence,” he stated.
“Throughout Gaza, food supplies are running dangerously low, and malnutrition is rapidly worsening,” he noted, citing findings from a partner organisation.
According to the screening, over 80 cases of acute malnutrition were identified among 1,300 children in North Gaza, marking a twofold increase in recent weeks, he said.
Dujarric urged UN member states to ensure that aid reaches those in need while upholding humanitarian principles of neutrality and independence. Additionally, he called on nations with influence to work towards securing the release of hostages.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that Israel’s blocking of aid supplies reaching Gaza has deprived the territory’s population of the “necessities for human survival”.
This comes on top of Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza’s tent shelters for forcibly displaced people, which “continue to cause mass casualties”, the UN agency said.
In its latest situation assessment, OCHA had this stark message: “The Gaza Strip is now likely facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the 18 months since the escalation of hostilities in October 2023.”
According to OCHA, aid operations have stalled in the territory due to a combination of Israel’s expanding military operations, blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies for more than 50 days, Israel’s killing of aid workers and attacks on their premises, as well as severe restrictions on movement in the enclave.
The situation was described by an OCHA official as the “deliberate dismantling of Palestinian life” in Gaza.
Israeli attacks on Gaza kill at least 45 and injure more than 100, medical sources tell reporters, and the death toll continues to mount from overnight and predawn strikes on the enclave.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says United States Republican Party lawmakers support his “very clear position” on the need to bomb “food and aid depots” in Gaza.
Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank have sealed off the three main entrances to the city of Jenin with iron gates.
A vehicle carrying gates was filmed approaching Jenin as Israeli troops set off tear gas and sound bombs inside the city.
The gates are the latest among more than 170 others installed around towns in the West Bank since October 2023.
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has shared photos and a video clip of Israeli settlers attacking and burning Palestinian homes and agricultural trees in the village of Sinjil, located in the northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Yesh Din, which works on rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory, said settlers have attacked the village twice – so far – this week.
Israeli forces also assisted an earlier attack by firing tear gas canisters at locals trying to put out the fires started by the settlers, the rights group said, adding that one resident of the village was killed.
“The military enables this and prevents emergency services from accessing the area,” Yesh Din said, adding the violence corresponds with the establishment of a new settler “farm outpost” near the Palestinian village.
A funeral procession set off on Wednesday evening from the Jenin government hospital heading towards the occupied West Bank town of al-Yamoun, where Israeli forces shot Mahmoud Abu al-Haija, the Wafa news agency reports.
The 12-year-old boy was standing in the street with a group of children earlier on Wednesday when Israeli forces opened fire and fatally wounded him in the thigh and abdomen, according to Wafa.