UN Says Israel Blocking Nearly Half of Gaza Aid Missions
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, citing data from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters that humanitarian operations "continue to face significant impediments" — a pattern advocates warn could deepen an already catastrophic crisis.
Supply routes entering Gaza from multiple directions remain severely compromised. "Shipments from Jordan are restricted to a route that requires multiple offloading and reloading points," Dujarric said, while also warning that "shipments from Egypt, via Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem, face high return rates: despite a recent improvement, between Feb. 4 and 10, less than 60% of consignments from Egypt could be offloaded at that crossing point."
Inside Gaza itself, access is no less constrained. Dujarric stressed that "humanitarian movements that require coordination with Israeli authorities also continue to face obstacles."
"Of nearly 50 such movements coordinated between Feb. 6 and 11, just over half were fully facilitated," he said, noting that "five were denied outright, and 11 were approved but encountered significant delays and other impediments, including two that were only partially accomplished as a result."
The obstruction showed no sign of easing. "And just today, we had two more denials," Dujarric said.
He added that UN field teams were engaged in ongoing talks with Israeli officials to "clarify the constraints and seek their resolution."
The disclosures come weeks into a US-brokered ceasefire that halted more than two years of warfare in Gaza — a conflict that has killed over 72,000 people, the majority of them women and children, and left more than 171,000 injured since hostilities erupted in October 2023. Since the truce took effect on Jan. 19, Gaza's Health Ministry reports that Israeli forces have committed hundreds of violations through shelling and live fire, killing 603 Palestinians and injuring a further 1,618 others.
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