[News] Israel to block Unrwa food convoys from reaching northern Gaza, agency says

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-unrwa-says-israel-block-food-convoys-reaching-north-gaza>
Israel to block Unrwa food convoys from reaching northern Gaza, agency says
By MEE staff
March 24, 2024
------------------------------

Decision comes days after a UN-backed report warned of imminent famine
facing the besieged enclave
[image: Displaced Palestinians receive food aid at the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) centre in Rafah in
the southern Gaza Strip on 28 January 2024 (AFP)]

Displaced Palestinians receive food aid at the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) centre in Rafah in the southern
Gaza Strip on 28 January 2024 (AFP)

Published date: 24 March

Israel <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel> will no longer
approve food convoys to northern Gaza carried by the UN agency for
Palestinian <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine> refugees,
Unrwa, the organisation's chief said on Sunday.

Philippe Lazzarini said the decision, communicated by Israeli authorities
to the UN, was "outrageous".

"Despite the tragedy unfolding under our watch, the Israeli authorities
informed the UN that they will no longer approve any Unrwa food convoys to
the north," Lazzarini said on social media platform X
<https://twitter.com/UNLazzarini/status/1771917857598693549>.

"This is outrageous and makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving
assistance during a man made famine," he added.

The decision comes days after a UN-backed report warned that famine was
imminent in northern Gaza, a crisis many have accused Israel of
causing by using
starvation
<https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/18/israel-starvation-used-weapon-war-gaza>
as a weapon of war.

Israeli authorities have severely restricted the entry of humanitarian aid
into the Gaza Strip for over five months, especially in the north.

A UN-backed initiative found
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/un-famine-expected-in-gaza-anytime>
last week that the entire population of Gaza, estimated to be around 2.3
million, is enduring "acute" food insecurity, while half the population
suffers from a greater level of food insecurity classified as
"catastrophic".

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a multi-partner
initiative, concluded that the hunger level in Gaza is the "highest share
of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC
initiative has ever classified for any given area or country".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this was the first time an entire
population has been classified at severe levels of acute food insecurity.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/war-gaza-children-starving-death-political-games-must-end-now>

Children are starving to death. The political games must end now


According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 27 children have
died from malnutrition so far.

Blocking aid by Unrwa, the largest humanitarian organisation in Gaza, would
make "the clock tick faster towards famine", Lazzarini said, warning many
more will die of hunger and dehydration.

"This cannot happen, it would only stain our collective humanity," he said.

The Sunday decision comes two months after Israel alleged that 12 of
Unrwa's 30,000 employees were involved in Hamas-led attacks on southern
Israel on 7 October.

A string of western countries, including the US
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/us>, UK
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/uk>, Canada and Germany, suspended
funding
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-officials-denounce-us-uk-pause-funding-unrwa>
to
the agency following the allegations. Some of them did so without having
seen any evidence of the claims, MEE reported
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-us-eu-unrwa-funding-dossier-evidence>
last
month.

Upon learning of the allegations, Unrwa dismissed 10 of the employees - two
others were dead - in a process that the head of the agency admitted
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/09/head-of-unwra-says-he-followed-reverse-due-process-in-sacking-accused-gaza-staff>
amounted
to "reverse due process".

The agency has said that the funding suspensions, as well as Israeli calls
for Unrwa's abolition, have left it at "breaking point".

A number of EU countries, Canada and Australia have since announced
that they were resuming funding for the agency.

Unrwa was established in 1949 - a year after the Nakba
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/nakba-palestine-catastrophe-explained> (or
catastrophe), during which 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their
homes during the creation of Israel - to provide healthcare, education and
humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/syria> and Lebanon
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/lebanon>.

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