Aid allowed into Gaza 'woefully inadequate' to sustain life: UN

United Nations, July 25 (IANS) The little aid allowed to reach supply facilities inside Gaza is "woefully inadequate" to curb starvation or sustain life-saving relief operations, UN humanitarians said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday that while UN teams were able to collect food aid, mainly flour, from Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem and Zikim crossings on Wednesday, civilians still face death, injury, hunger, displacement and trauma amid the hostilities and inadequate access to food, water, healthcare and shelter, Xinhua news agency reported.

Following Israeli allegations that the world body and its partners were not collecting aid at the border crossing, OCHA listed the obstacles it faces in obtaining relief for Gazans, Xinhua news agency reported.

The humanitarian office said that challenges the United Nations and its partners face include bureaucratic, logistical, administrative and other operational obstacles imposed by Israeli authorities, ongoing hostilities, and access constraints within Gaza, including incidents of criminal looting and shooting that have killed and injured people gathering to offload aid supplies along convoy routes.

OCHA said that violence connected with aid distribution has put civilians and humanitarian staff at grave risk and forced aid agencies on many occasions to pause the collection of cargo from Israeli-controlled crossings.

The office said that out of 16 attempts to coordinate movements with Israeli authorities on Wednesday, only eight were facilitated, including the collection and transfer of limited fuel.

Two other movements were initially approved but then faced obstacles in Gaza.

OCHA said its partners reported that more than one million children are bearing the brunt of deepening starvation and malnutrition, with reports of death from malnutrition increasing by the day.

"According to partners working in nutrition, in the first two weeks of July, nearly 5,000 of the 56,000 children under the age of five screened for malnutrition in the governorates of Gaza, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis were found to be acutely malnourished," the humanitarians said, adding that the figure is a staggering nine per cent, compared with six per cent in June and 2.4 percent in February.

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said on Thursday that one in every five children in Gaza City is malnourished.

OCHA said that families have been squeezed into just 12 per cent of Gaza's area, while the remaining 88 per cent of the Gaza Strip now either falls within Israeli-militarised zones or has been placed under displacement orders.

The office said that the blockade on critical items, such as tents and other shelter materials, has lasted more than 20 weeks. The trickle of fuel now let in is also wholly insufficient.

OCHA said that aid workers in Gaza who themselves are affected, displaced and going hungry insist on staying and providing life-saving assistance. They join voices across the UN system in continuing to call for a ceasefire and an end to the devastation.

--IANS

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