The UN estimated, this Tuesday 15th, that the population of Gaza Strip is facing the worst restrictions limiting humanitarian aid since the start of the war a year ago, warning especially of the devastating impact of this situation on children.
“The situation for children is worse every day than the last,” said James Elder, the spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund, Unicef.
The Israeli reprisal offensive in the Gaza Strip for attacks by the Islamist movement Hamas of October 7, 2023 em Israel devastated large areas of Palestinian territory.
The Israeli Army has intensified its operations in the north of the territory, where thousands of people are trapped, according to the UN.
“The amount of humanitarian aid that was sent in August to the Gaza Strip was the lowest in a month since the war broke out,” said Elder, who added that there were “several days during the past week (in which) no authorization was given. no trucks come in.”
“We are probably seeing the worst restrictions ever seen in terms of humanitarian aid”, he denounced.
At the beginning of the year, when the UN feared a famine crisis in the Gaza Strip, there was “real pressure to open new routes and new access points”, highlighted Elder.
But today, “the situation is completely opposite”, he explained, adding that since May, “entry points have been systematically blocked”.
The north of the Strip “did not receive any food, any food aid during the entire month of October”, he lamented.
This situation, added to the incessant bombings and the fact that around 85% of the territory has received evacuation orders, makes the Strip “totally uninhabitable”, he declared.
Despite all this, a second phase of the polio vaccination campaign began on Monday, in which around 93,000 doses were administered, said World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic.
The polio vaccination campaign began after the Palestinian territory confirmed the first case of the disease in 25 years.
Like the first, this second phase will be divided into three stages, also thanks to the humanitarian pauses observed for this purpose.
The objective is to administer a second dose to more than 590,000 children under the age of ten.
