Everyone in north Gaza at 'imminent risk' of death - UN
· RTE.ieThe situation in northern Gaza is "apocalyptic" as Israel pursues a military offensive against Hamas militants in the area, top United Nations officials has warned.
"The entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence," they said in a statement signed by the acting UN aid chief Joyce Msuya, heads of UN agencies, including UN children's agency UNICEF and the World Food Programme, and other aid groups.
Israel began a wide military push in northern Gaza last month. The United States has said it was watching to ensure that its ally's actions on the ground show it does not have a "policy of starvation" in the north.
"Humanitarian aid cannot keep up with the scale of the needs due to the access constraints. Basic, life-saving goods are not available. Humanitarians are not safe to do their work and are blocked by Israeli forces and by insecurity from reaching people in need," they said.
They urged all parties fighting in Gaza to protect civilians and called on Israel to "ceases its assault on Gaza and on the humanitarians trying to help".
Israel's UN mission in New York declined comment on the statement. Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon last month told the Security Council that the issue in Gaza was not a lack of aid, saying more than a million tons had been delivered during the past year. He accused Hamas of hijacking the assistance.
Hamas has repeatedly denied Israeli allegations that it was stealing aid and says Israel is to blame for shortages.
On Monday, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza without medical or food supplies. Reuters could not verify the number independently.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power spoke with Israel's ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog as a deadline imposed by Washington looms for Israel to improve the situation or face potential restrictions on US military aid.
Ms Power and Mr Herzog "discussed the need to get more aid to the Palestinian people," said USAID spokesperson Benjamin Suarato, adding: "Administrator Power raised serious concern on the humanitarian conditions in northern Gaza."
It comes as medics in Gaza said about 64 people were killed and dozens more injured overnight and into this morning in Israeli strikes on the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of Al-Zawayda, all in the central area of Gaza as well as in its south.
Fourteen people were killed by an Israeli strike at the gate of a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Nuseirat, according to medics at the camp's Al-Awda Hospital.
Another ten were killed in a car in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, medics said.
It comes as the World Health Organization said that the necessary second round of child polio vaccinations in northern Gaza would finally begin tomorrow, after Israeli bombing halted the drive.
The announcement that the final phase of polio vaccination can go ahead came a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel to facilitate a quick completion of the campaign.
The vaccination drive began on 1 September after the besieged Palestinian territory confirmed its first case of polio in 25 years.
A first round of inoculation was completed across Gaza and the second round - essential to build up immunity - began as scheduled on 14 October, first in central Gaza, then the south, aided by so-called humanitarian pauses in the fighting.
But the WHO postponed the final four-day phase in the north, which was set to begin on 23 October, due to "intense bombardment" making the conditions on the ground "impossible".
Israel launched a major air and ground assault in northern Gaza last month, saying it wanted to stop Hamas militants regrouping there.
119,000 children left waiting
"Polio vaccination in northern Gaza is ready to resume tomorrow," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
"We are assured of the necessary humanitarian pause in Gaza City to conduct the campaign.
"Unfortunately, the area covered is substantially reduced compared to the first round of vaccination, which will leave some children unprotected and at higher risk of infection."
In its original reasoning for postponing vaccinations in the north, the UN health agency said the approved area for humanitarian pauses had been cut down to Gaza City alone, meaning many children would have missed their second dose.
This would "seriously jeopardise efforts to stop the transmission of poliovirus in Gaza", it had said.Some 119,000 children in the north are awaiting their second dose, while 452,000 have been vaccinated in central and southern Gaza.
The WHO says a minimum of two separate doses of oral vaccine are needed to interrupt poliovirus transmission, requiring 90% of all children aged under ten to be vaccinated in a given community.
Typically spread through sewage and contaminated water, poliovirus is highly infectious.
It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal, mainly affecting children under the age of five.
Hospital strikes lead to malnutrition
Israel's military has accused the Palestinian militant group Hamas of using Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia for military purposes and said "dozens of terrorists" have been hiding there.
Health officials and Hamas deny the assertion.
The health ministry in Gaza called for all international bodies "to protect hospitals and medical staff from the brutality of the (Israeli) occupation".
WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said that "because of the attacks", the hospital's malnutrition stabilisation centre had closed, meaning there was no such facility remaining in the north.
"Before that occurred, we were seeing an increasing number, month on month, of children with severe acute malnutrition who were requiring treatment," she told a media briefing.
"We've not really seen any food aid enter north Gaza since 2 October. People are running out of ways to cope. The food systems have collapsed and the opportunity to care for those who are at the most critical stage is not there any more," she said.
"Over 86% of the population across Gaza are experiencing high levels of food insecurity.
"It's always the children who suffer the most."
Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said yesterday that one of its doctors at the hospital, Mohammed Obeid, had been detained last Saturday by Israeli forces.
It called for the protection of him and all medical staff who "are facing horrific violence as they try to provide care".
The Gaza war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced most of the enclave to rubble, Palestinian authorities say.