UN Palestinian agency accuses Israel of stopping aid deliveries

The head of the UN agency giving aid to Palestinians, Philippe Lazzarini, has accused Israel of stopping humanitarian assistance from reaching the north of the war-torn Gaza Strip.

"The Israeli authorities continue to deny humanitarian missions to reach the north with critical supplies including medicine and food for people under siege," wrote Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Injured people could not be treated because the hospitals had no electricity after being hit, he wrote.

"Remaining shelters are so overcrowded, some displaced people are now forced to live in the toilets," he said.

Lazzarini called for aid organizations to be allowed access to the northern Gaza Strip, including UNRWA.

"Denying & weaponizing humanitarian assistance to achieve military purposes is a sign of how low the moral compass is ... A ceasefire is the beginning to putting an end to this endless nightmare," he wrote.

Sam Rose, UNRWA's deputy director in the coastal strip, told US broadcaster CNN on Sunday that "we've got three months of food supply waiting outside to feed the entire Gaza Strip."

"Right now it is just not able to get in through the south," he said.

But the Israeli authority responsible for Palestinian affairs, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), rejected those allegations. "This is a lie, Sam Rose, and you know it," COGAT said on X.

"Over 500,000 tons of aid on over 26,000 trucks entered Gaza since May," the X continued, adding that "three entry points of aid are fully operational."

Relations between UNRWA and Israel are tense: Israel accuses the Palestinian relief organization in the Gaza Strip of being infiltrated by the Islamist organization Hamas, which launched the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks on southern Israel.

Last week, the US gave Israel a 30-day deadline to improve the aid supplies to the people in the coastal strip. Otherwise, US arms deliveries to Israel could be jeopardized.