Thousands of Gaza children face imminent death under Israeli siege: United Nations | Israel - Palestinian conflict news

The head of UN relief warned that thousands of children in Gaza suffered nearly three months of Israeli lockdown in besieged enclaves, with thousands of children on the verge of death.

This put 14,000 babies at risk of dying in the next 48 hours, Tom Fletcher said in an interview with the BBC on Tuesday.

"We need to flood the Gaza Strip with humanitarian assistance," the UN Deputy Minister for Humanitarian Affairs said.

Israel began on March 2, and Israel blocked all food, medicine and other life-saving aid. As of Monday, since then, the first entry into the aid measures has been authorized.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA), spoke at the European Humanitarian Forum in Brussels on Tuesday, said relief organizations had used up words to describe the horror of Gaza at the hands of Israel.

"But, the worst thing is that we face a situation where the war will stop if there is political will. The siege of Gaza can be lifted," Razalini said.

At least 57 children have reportedly died of malnutrition since early March.

Unsupported Integrated Food Security Stage Classification (IPC) Assessment says more than 93% of children in Gaza (about 930,000) are at risk of famine

The Department of Health’s health director Akihiro Seita added Tuesday that the situation is “exponential” and may soon reach “uncontrollable”.

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(Al Jazeera)

Israel told the UN on Tuesday that it would allow 100 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter, saying it would allow nine aid trucks to enter the enclave for the first time in more than 80 days.

Both moves have been thoroughly criticized, only the “sea” that meets Gaza’s humanitarian needs, which was largely reduced to rubble by Israeli air strikes and ground operations and expanded over the weekend.

The Israeli attacks continued to kill dozens of Palestinians, including many children, while the rest of the infrastructure and aid supplies were destroyed.

The city of Deir El-Balah in central Gaza announced Tuesday that the remaining source of drinking water in the area was destroyed along with generators during an Israeli strike.

According to the United Nations, in the past few days alone, this is more than 100,000 Palestinians have been driven out of their homes and shelters and have nowhere to be safe in the face of famine.

Israeli forces also bombed the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Tuesday, hitting life-saving medical supplies and causing extensive damage in different facilities in the hospital, including oxygen lines and laboratories.

“In northern Gaza, Indonesian hospitals are besieged by the Israeli military and patients cannot enter or go out.”

She added: "In addition to Nasser and Indonesian hospitals, two other major hospitals in Gaza, Europe and Al Wada, have also been bombed and mostly served in the past few days."

Tess Ingram, communications manager at UNICEF, explained to Al Jazeera why the plans developed by the United States and Israel to control the distribution of aid in Gaza are unacceptable.

She said the United Nations and its international partners have 400 allocation points across Gaza to help Palestinians, and now there is only one "few" military point in southern Gaza under the plan of the United States and Israel.

"This means people will have to go a long way to collect a small bag that weighs 25 kg (55 lbs) and then go back," she said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed in his speech on Monday that only "minimum" aid was allowed to enter Gaza due to international pressure and condemnation of him and his government.

His far-right national security minister Itama Ben-Gvir said that allowing any aid to enter Gaza, while some Israeli captives taken during the October 7, 2023 attacks led by Hamas are still being held in the enclave, which is "a serious mistake that has caused our victory."

The devastating strike on the Palestinian territory has also intensified as Israeli military and government continues to promise to “defeat” Hamas.

Israeli troops said Tuesday afternoon that in the first 24 hours it attacked 100 targets in Gaza, claiming they were all targets of "terrorists."

According to Gaza's Ministry of Health, at least 53,573 Palestinians have been killed and 121,688 injured since the war began.