Israel keeps in place the restrictions on a trickle of humanitarian aid entering the besieged Gaza Strip, the United Nations has warned.
“Israel continues to impose unlawful restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian assistance, and to carry out widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure,” said Ravina Shamdasani, the spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at a press conference in Geneva on Tuesday.
The occupying regime has blocked water, food, and electricity to Gaza.
On April 1, Israel faced worldwide backlash after an airstrike killed seven aid workers working for the NGO World Central Kitchen in central Gaza.
“Those delivering or trying to access humanitarian assistance must never be attacked,” Shamdasani said.
Aid agencies, international charities and the International Court of Justice have on several occasions stated that Israel is blocking humanitarian supplies from entering the besieged Palestinian territory, where hunger is most pervasive.
Shamdasani also voiced concern over increasing settler violence in the occupied West Bank, calling on Israeli forces to “immediately end their active participation in and support for settler attacks” on Palestinians.
Meanwhile, the UN Relief Works and Agency (UNRWA), which is a critical source of support for people in Gaza, said in its latest situation update that no significant change has occurred in the amount of aid entering Gaza.
It warned the amount of aid entering Gaza has remained relatively stable since the beginning of April, with an average of 181 trucks arriving in the territory on a daily basis.
According to UNRWA, such amount of aid to Gaza is far below the operational capacity of the blockaded territory’s open border crossings.
The agency also said the trickle of aid fails to meet Israel’s stated aim of facilitating the entry of 500 aid trucks every day, stressing that it has been unable to reach Gaza since January 23.
Throughout this Palestinian territory, “food insecurity” has increased by 80 percent since December, UNRWA warned.
The regime began the genocidal campaign in Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Israel has killed at least 33,700 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, since.
