UN humanitarian office says aid access in Gaza at 'low point'

GENEVA

The UN humanitarian office on Friday said that humanitarian aid access to the besieged Gaza is at a "low point," voicing particular concern about the situation in the north.

"From our perspective on all indicators you can possibly think of in a humanitarian response, all of them are going in the wrong direction," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a UN briefing in Geneva.

"Access is at a low point," Laerke said and added: "Chaos suffering, despair, death, destruction, displacement is at a high point."

He voiced concern about the situation in northern Gaza, where delivering assistance is "near impossible."

"We have seen and been particularly concerned about the situation in the north of Gaza, which is now effectively under siege, and it is near impossible to deliver aid in there. So the operation is being stifled," he said.

Describing the current picture through one of his colleagues' words, Laerke said: "You want to jump up and do something, but ... our legs are broken. So we've been asked to jump, but our legs are broken."

Since Oct. 5, the Israeli military has launched a ground invasion in northern Gaza, claiming the aim is to prevent Palestinian group Hamas from regaining strength in the area. However, Palestinian officials argue that Israel intends to annex northern Gaza and turn it into a buffer zone by forcibly displacing its residents.

The Israeli assault has continued since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. The offensive has killed over 43,700 people and rendered the Gaza Strip almost uninhabitable.

The ongoing Israeli onslaught has displaced nearly the entire population of the region, exacerbated by a blockade that has resulted in severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.