“This is outrageous [and] makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man made famine. These restrictions must be lifted”, Philippe Lazzarini wrote in an X post.
He warned that the move will speed up the coming of famine in the north of the Gaza Strip, and added that “many more will die of hunger, dehydration”.
Famine is likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July, the world’s hunger watchdog, known as the Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC), said last week.
The IPC announced 70 percent of people in parts of northern Gaza were suffering the most severe level of food shortage, more than triple the 20 percent threshold to be considered famine. In all, 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza, about half the population, were experiencing “catastrophic” shortages of food.
Martin Griffiths, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator at the UN, also stated he repeatedly urged Israel to lift all its restrictions on aid to Gaza, but it has now done the exact opposite.
“UNRWA is the beating heart of the humanitarian response in Gaza,” he said about the UN organisation for Palestinian refugees, which has now been told by Israel that its food convoys to northern Gaza will be blocked entirely despite the humanitarian disaster there.
“The decision to block its food convoys to the north only pushes thousands closer to famine. It must be revoked,” he added.
