The plight of Palestinian civilians trapped in North Gaza is unbearable, Guterres’s spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said.

Israel, vowing to stop Hamas fighters from regrouping in the north of the Palestinian territory, has launched a major air and ground assault on October 6 and ordered residents to flee South, while no food or clear water arriving in the region.

The UN spokesperson stated that according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks and tens of thousands were forced to flee.

The Secretary-General is shocked by the harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction in the north, with civilians trapped under rubble, the sick and wounded going without life-saving health care, and families lacking food and shelter”, Dujarric added.

Israeli authorities are continuing to deny attempts to deliver humanitarian aid to those in need, Dujarric stressed, “with few exceptions, putting countless lives in peril”.

European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has also issued a statement underscoring what he called “the urgent need to respect” international humanitarian law in the besieged enclave

“By signing the Geneva Conventions, signatories have a legal responsibility to ensure adherence to international law by all parties involved. It is our duty to protect civilians and human rights, and it is high time to act on it,” he said.

“The too little information coming out from North Gaza still attests to a catastrophic level of killing, destruction and starvation, in addition to forced displacements of civilians while an entire population is under bombings, siege and risk of starvation, as well as being forced to choose between displacement or death,” he added.

The Israeli army has intensified its assault in northern Gaza amid a suffocating siege that has left tens of thousands of people without food and water.

The aggression, which began in early October, is the latest episode in Israel’s brutal offensive that has killed nearly 43,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured more than 100,000 since last October following an attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced nearly the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Palestinian Civil Defense, said in a video shared on social media that the Israeli army has killed over 1,000 Palestinians during its three-week-long military offensives in northern Gaza, which are still ongoing.

“More than 100,000 Palestinians in the areas of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia are suffering from an Israeli siege and bombardment, while the other half of the population, which numbered around 200,000, has been forcibly displaced towards Gaza City, the closest governorate to the north,” Bassal told Anadolu.

He continued: “The Israeli army is killing anyone who tries to provide aid to the Palestinians trapped in the northern Gaza Strip, who are suffering from a lack of water, medicine, and food.”

“The Israeli occupation is practicing a policy of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza amid international silence,” Bassal lamented.

He urged international and humanitarian organizations “to work immediately and urgently to save the Palestinians in northern Gaza.”

The Israeli army has continued a devastating offensive on the Gaza Strip since a Hamas attack last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 43,000 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 100,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the territory’s entire population amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

An Oxfam official told Al Jazeera on Sunday Israel is using starvation as a weapon in its genocide against the Palestinians and that the United Kingdom-based NGO was unable to reach people in the north because of Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign.

Mahmoud Alsaqqa, who is Oxfam’s food security and livelihood lead in Gaza, warned that some Palestinians are “starving to death” from hunger in northern Gaza and more people will die in the coming days.

“There is nothing. You are talking about tens of days that they are not receiving any supplies,” he said, adding that most Palestinians in the area rely on aid supplies.

Aid agencies say about 96 percent of Gaza’s population is facing high levels of food shortages. According to UNICEF, nine out of 10 children lack the nutrition they need for growth and development. At least 37 children have died of malnutrition or dehydration in a year of war.

The United Nations says Israel has blocked the entry of 83 percent of food aid into the Strip since the war began. It added about 50,000 children below the age of five need urgent treatment for malnutrition by the end of the year.

On Sunday United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire, for the release of hostages and “accountability for crimes under international law”.

“The devastation and deprivation resulting from Israel’s military operations in North Gaza are making the conditions of life untenable for the Palestinian population there,” he said on X, adding, “This conflict continues to be waged with little regard for the requirements of international humanitarian law.”

The Oxfam warning came as Israeli soldiers bombed more neighbourhoods in northern Gaza on Sunday and humanitarian officials sounded alarm about the ongoing ground assault by Israeli forces which is forcibly displacing tens of thousands of residents out of the area.

Israel’s strikes on the towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza have so far killed about 800 Palestinians during the ongoing siege, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, said on social media platform X that “the entire population of Gaza is at risk of dying in a genocide that has been announced and executed under our watch”.

Albanese was responding to a statement made by UN humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya on Saturday, warning that “the entire population of north Gaza is at risk of dying” under Israel’s siege.

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Saturday noted the ongoing Israeli evacuation orders and restrictions on the entry of essential supplies to the north had left the civilian population in “horrific circumstances”.

“Many civilians are currently unable to move, trapped by fighting, destruction or physical constraint and now lack access to even basic medical care,” it added.

Palestinian health officials say the siege had crippled the healthcare system in northern Gaza and was blocking medical teams from reaching bombed sites.

Israel maintains that its forces have returned to northern Gaza more than a year into the war to root out Hamas fighters who had regrouped there.

Nearly 43,000 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 100,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the territory’s entire population amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.