GENEVA (AFP) – Conflict-ravaged Gaza appears to be facing the worst restrictions on aid since Israel’s war there began over a year ago, the United Nations (UN) said yesterday, lamenting the devastating impact on children especially.
“Day after day, the situation for children becomes worse than the day before,” said James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF.
Vast areas of Gaza have been devastated by Israel’s assault on the territory after October 7.
And Israel has been intensifying operations in the north of the besieged Palestinian territory, where the UN has warned hundreds of thousands of people are trapped.
Despite a desperate need to increase the amount of aid going in, Elder lamented that aid access was worsening.
“August was the lowest amount of humanitarian aid that came into the Gaza Strip of any full month since the war broke out,” he said, adding that there had been “several days in the last week (where) no commercial trucks whatsoever were allowed to come in”.
“We see now what is probably the worst restrictions we’ve seen on humanitarian aid, ever.”
