The U.N. Human Rights Office has documented greater than two dozen attacks on Gazans waiting for desperately needed aid since January, as famine spreads amid a near-total siege of Israel, stopping most food and water from reaching the tiny enclave.
The office has not blamed any side for the wave of attacks as people wait for help. In a series of U.N. reports and statements, the office has documented a minimum of 26 such attacks since mid-January.
These include a Thursday night attack on tons of of Palestinians who were waiting at a roundabout in Kuwait City’s Gaza City for an expected convoy of aid trucks. Gaza health officials accused Israeli forces of carrying out a “targeted” attack on the gang that killed 20 people, with three witnesses describing gunfire on the scene.
The Israeli military blamed Palestinian gunmen for the bloodshed and said it was still reviewing the episode. It said an “intensive preliminary review” found that “there was no tank fire, airstrikes or shootings at Gaza civilians in the aid convoy,” even though it didn’t say whether the armed forces opened fire in any respect.
According to the United Nations, it was a minimum of the tenth such incident in March by which people were shot, killed or injured while waiting for help at roundabouts in Kuwait or Nabulsi. These are the 2 foremost southern entrances to Gaza City, where several humanitarian aid trucks arrive from the south entering northern Gaza.
In the deadliest incident, greater than 100 Palestinians were killed and lots of others injured when Israeli forces opened fire around a convoy in Gaza City in late February. Witnesses said Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians who advanced on trucks carrying humanitarian aid.
The Israeli military said its forces opened fire “when the crowd moved in a way that threatened them.” It is claimed that the majority people died within the stampede and a few were run over by trucks.
Aid agencies, including the United Nations, said that as a substitute of helping to facilitate humanitarian aid, Israel blocked aid from reaching the Gaza Strip or reaching the north, where the famine situation had turn out to be dire.
“Israel’s choice of methods and means of war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe,” the UN office said in a report this month. “Such choices included the imposition of a siege on Gaza, other restrictions on humanitarian aid and the distribution of commercial goods, massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, including roads essential to population access, and restrictions on movement between the north and south of Gaza.”
Israel, which began the siege after an Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, has said throughout the war that it’s committed to facilitating as much aid as possible to Gaza. He blames UN staff and logistics for the delays.
In a press release on Friday, the UN Human Rights Office called on Israel to offer Gaza with food and medical care. Aid agencies said that along with Israeli restrictions on aid convoys, looting by hungry Palestinians and growing lawlessness made aid distribution difficult, if not unimaginable.
If Israel cannot provide assistance, it “has an obligation to facilitate humanitarian activities, including by ensuring the security conditions required for such activities,” the Human Rights Office said.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that in February, Israeli authorities facilitated 1 / 4 of scheduled U.N. aid missions.
UN officials and other humanitarian groups have warned that starvation is in danger within the Gaza Strip because of this of inadequate food supplies. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, a minimum of 27 people, including 23 children, died from malnutrition, dehydration and lack of infant milk.
