United Nations/Prensa Latina
The United Nations (UN) denounced on Friday the lack of access to northern Gaza after two humanitarian missions were denied this Friday without detailing the reason.
One of the missions aimed to deliver 20,000 liters of fuel for backup power generators at the Al Ahli hospital, Stéphane Dujarrric, spokesman for the secretary general, told the press.
At that facility, he added, medical staff are still working to provide essential care, despite not having power.
Over the past week, more than 40 percent of aid missions to northern Gaza were denied or prevented, including due to nearby hostilities, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
In addition, access to humanitarian missions planned for areas south of Wadi Gaza was denied.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jamie McGoldrick, recalled that Israel’s obligations to facilitate the flow of aid in Gaza do not end when those supplies are left on the other side of the border.
Aid organizations must be able to deliver aid safely throughout Gaza, including ensuring that facilities and convoys are not attacked and granting and facilitating access to them, not denying their movements, Dujarric said.
The agency also insisted on Tel Aviv’s responsibility to ensure that humanitarian missions pass quickly and predictably through checkpoints as well as allowing the entry of supplies such as fuel, trucks and communications equipment.
This Friday, McGoldrick rejected Israeli versions that claimed the entry of more than a thousand trucks to the enclave in recent times and the collection of nearly 800 on the Palestinian side.
In addition, he considered the conflict resolution system in which aid workers share their coordinates with the parties to be inaccurate, concerns he addressed with forces in Tel Aviv this week.
“It is very easy for Israel to say that we have sent you a thousand trucks, so please deliver them inside Gaza,” he said, demanding more responsibility for distribution and delivery as well.
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