Your support helps us tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to big tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the finances of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word,’ which shines a light on American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to analyze the facts of the exchange. message.
At such a critical moment in American history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to continue sending journalists to tell both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to block Americans from our reporting and analysis with a paywall. We believe that quality journalism should be available to everyone, and paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes a difference.
Humanitarian aid to northern Gaza, where Israel launched a ground offensive on October 6, has been largely blocked for the past 66 days, United Nations he said on Tuesday. There are between 65,000 and 75,000 left Palestinians without access to food, water, electricity or healthcare, according to the world body.
In the north, Israel continued its siege of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya, and Palestinians living there were largely denied aid, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, said. Recently, around 5,500 people were reportedly forcibly displaced from three schools in Beit Lahia in Gaza City.
Adding to the food crisis, only four UN-supported bakeries are currently operating across the Gaza Strip, all in Gaza City, OCHA said.
Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told reporters after a closed-door UN Security Council briefing on Tuesday afternoon that civilians trying to survive in Gaza face an “absolutely devastating situation”.
She pointed to the breakdown of law and order and looting that have exacerbated a very difficult situation and left the UN and many humanitarian organizations unable to deliver food and other humanitarian supplies to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in need.
Kaag said she and other U.N. officials have repeatedly asked Israel to allow convoys into northern Gaza and elsewhere, to allow commercial goods, to reopen the Rafah crossing from Egypt to the south and to approve dual-use items.
Israel’s UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment
The UN has set up the logistics for the Gaza-wide operation, she said, but there is no substitute for political will that humanitarians lack.
“The member states own it,” Kaag said. And that is what she called on the members of the Security Council to do, and she constantly calls on the wider international community to put pressure on — the political will to resolve the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.