“UN tells Israel it will suspend aid operations in Gaza if security is not improved”

Washington: Senior UN officials have told Israel they will halt aid efforts in Gaza unless urgent steps are taken to better protect humanitarian workers, two UN officials say. A UN letter sent to senior Israeli officials this month said Israel must allow UN staff direct communication with Israeli troops on the ground in Gaza, among other things, the officials said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations with Israeli officials. The UN officials say there has been no final decision on suspending operations in Gaza and talks with the Israelis are ongoing.

The United Nations World Food Programme has already suspended aid deliveries from a US-built pier in Gaza for security reasons. The organisation says aid deliveries have fallen by 67 percent since Israel began its ground operation in Rafah. More than 50 WHO trucks were stuck on the Egyptian side of the border crossing into the southern city. At the same time, only three trucks were allowed into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

Israel says it has allowed hundreds of truckloads of aid through the crossing but the UN has not picked them up. The UN says it is too dangerous to move trucks through the area because of lawlessness, despite Israel’s promises to create a safe corridor.

Israel’s war against Hamas, now in its ninth month, continues to face international criticism for the widespread destruction Gaza has caused and the loss of civilian lives. Aid groups regularly criticize the plan to bring aid to Gaza by sea as ineffective and a diversionary tactic that takes the pressure off Israel to open border crossings through which larger quantities of aid can be delivered. The Israeli military’s ground offensives and bombardments following Hamas’ surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7 have killed more than 37,600 people and wounded more than 86,000 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Some 1.3 million people displaced from the southern city of Rafah – more than half of Gaza’s population – now live in tents and cramped apartments in central Gaza.

And despite some increased aid to northern Gaza, experts say the enclave is at “high risk” of famine. Overcrowded hospitals are struggling to keep electricity running due to a lack of fuel and there are shortages of medicines. At the same time, many displaced Palestinians have to seek shelter in hospitals.