Israel bars 83% of food aid to Gaza, UN reports

Israel has blocked 83 percent of food aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip nearly a year after the war against Palestinians in the besieged enclave began, according to a press release from 16 UN humanitarian relief organizations.

The statement, as reported by the Palestinian Information Centre, highlighted a sharp increase in aid restrictions, up from 34 percent in 2023. This has resulted in Gaza’s population dropping from two meals per day to just one meal every other day.

The report also warned that around 50,000 children aged between 6 and 59 months urgently require treatment for malnutrition by the year’s end.

Organizations such as Save the Children, Oxfam, and the Danish Refugee Council emphasized that providing humanitarian aid remains the only viable solution given the dire circumstances.

However, coordination for aid delivery has faced severe delays, with only 37 of 94 missions completed in northern Gaza from September 1-15, and just 50 percent of the 243 missions in southern Gaza being executed.

The report further accused Israeli occupation forces of committing ongoing war crimes and massacres against Palestinian civilians, with the conflict in Gaza now in its 348th consecutive day.

UNICEF disclosed that “Since the beginning of the current escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, the number of internally displaced people has reached 1.4 million, with more than 550,000 seeking refuge in one of the 150 UNRWA schools that are serving as shelters in the central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip. The children and families are living in very crowded and dire conditions with little or no access to basic supplies.”

The UN agency added, “Children and families have practically no access to water, food and medicines, and the whole Gaza Strip is living with very little or no electricity.”