ISTANBUL, Feb 21 — Israel has denied access to more than half of the missions planned by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and its humanitarian partners to deliver aid in the northern Gaza Strip since the start of the year, the agency said Tuesday.
”Since the start of 2024, 51% of the missions planned by UNRWA and humanitarian partners to deliver aid and undertake assessments to areas in north Gaza this year were denied access by Israeli authorities,” Anadolu Agency reported the agency said on X.
”Food insecurity north of Wadi Gaza has reached an extremely critical state,” it added.
The agency said on Nov 17 last year that residents in northern Gaza were “on the brink of famine.”
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since October 7 killing over 29,195 people and injuring another 69,170 people so far.
About 85 per cent of Gazans have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught, while all of them are food insecure, according to the UN. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter, and less than half of the aid trucks are entering the territory than before the start of the conflict.
— Bernama
