Security Council meets on north Gaza as ‘supplies for survival’ run out

Joyce Msuya, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, briefed ambassadors on the situation in the north, where fighting has escalated.

Hospitals are running out of fuel and critical medical supplies, and food stocks are dwindling.

Patients burned alive

Ms. Msuya said that since her last briefing a week ago, the people of Gaza have suffered multiple mass casualty incidents due to Israeli airstrikes, with nearly 400 reportedly killed and almost 1,500 injured.

The world has also witnessed images of patients and displaced persons sheltering near Al Aqsa hospital burning alive, while scores more are suffering from excruciating burns.

Additionally, more than 20 people were killed and injured in a strike on a school serving as a shelter in Nuseirat.

Displacement, death and trauma

“Israel’s military offensive is intensifying in the north. Heavy fighting in and around Jabaliya, which is under siege, continues to be reported, as does indiscriminate rocket fire by Palestinian armed groups toward Israel,” she said.

It is estimated that 55,000 people have been displaced from the Jabaliya area, while others remain stranded in their homes with water and food running out.

She added that 13 members of a single family were killed on Tuesday after rescue workers were again prevented from reaching the wounded trapped under the rubble.

“The images emerging from the camp show a traumatized population, running for their lives, with no safe place to go,” she said.

Concern for pregnant women

Meanwhile, only three of the 10 hospitals in North Gaza Governorate are now operational, but only at minimum capacity, and with dire shortages of fuel, blood, trauma treatment and medications.

Ms. Msuya highlighted the situation of the 155,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza, where giving birth is exhausting and traumatic.

“There is no antenatal care. There is no medication. And then there is hunger,” she said. “Some 11,000 pregnant women are suffering hunger and malnutrition, putting not just their lives at risk, but also the lives of their newborn babies.”

Help to hospitals

She said that following nine separate attempts, an inter-agency team from the UN, an international non-governmental organization (NGO) and the Palestine Red Crescent Society, was finally able to reach the Kamal Adwan and Al-Sahaba hospitals in northern Gaza on 12 October.

They eventually transferred more than a dozen critical patients from Kamal Adwan to Al-Shifa hospital. Additional patients and their companions – who had earlier been transferred to Kamal Adwan from Al-Awda hospital – were also taken to Al-Shifa.

The team also delivered fuel to keep Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda functioning, while Al-Sahaba Hospital received fuel as well as blood units, “but humanitarian aid cannot be provided in one-off batches,” she said.

Humanitarians under fire

Ms. Msuya recalled that the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Kamal Adwan hospital is overwhelmed, receiving between 50 and 70 newly injured patients each day.

“These missions were completed amid fierce ongoing hostilities,” she told the Council.

“Drivers from the United Nations and the Palestine Red Crescent Society were subjected to humiliating treatment during security screening and temporary detention at a checkpoint.”

Food aid running out

Ms. Msuya then turned to the dire food situation in the north. She said no food entered from 2 to 15 October, “when a trickle was allowed in, and all essential supplies for survival are running out.”

She stressed that distributions of existing food supplies need to continue, but stocks are dwindling.

She said that in Gaza City, more than 110,000 meals are distributed each day by at least 10 kitchens, including to support the influx of people displaced from North Gaza governorate.

Meanwhile, between 11 and 13 October, UN partners in North Gaza governorate distributed more than 1,500 food parcels and 1,500 bags of wheat flour to displaced people trapped or sheltering in and near schools in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahya.

She warned, however, that there is now barely any food left to distribute, and most bakeries will be forced to shut down again in the next several days without additional fuel.

“Given the abject conditions and intolerable suffering in north Gaza, the fact that humanitarian access is nearly non-existent is unconscionable,” she stated.

Aid missions impeded

Ms. Msuya reported that during the first two weeks of October, Israel facilitated just one out of 54 coordinated movements to the north via the Al Rashid checkpoint, while another four were impeded but eventually accomplished.

She said 85 per cent of the movements were denied, and the rest were impeded or cancelled, due to security or logistical issues.

“Throughout Gaza, less than a third of the 286 humanitarian missions coordinated with Israeli authorities in the first two weeks of October were facilitated without major incidents or delays,” she said.

“Every time a mission is impeded, the lives of people in need and humanitarians on the ground are put at even greater risk. This woeful and unacceptable trend must change.”

Polio campaign continues

Humanitarians recently launched the second phase of a mass polio vaccination campaign in Gaza which has reached nearly 157,000 children so far, according to WHO.

Ms. Msuya said the campaign once again underscored the critical role of UNRWA, the UN Palestine refugee agency, whose teams vaccinated 43 per cent of the children reached on the first day.

“It is now critical that the parties continue to respect the agreed humanitarian pauses and that access be granted throughout Gaza to ensure that we can reach all children in need of the vaccine, including in the north,” she said.

Algeria calls for decisive action on Northern Gaza crisis

Algeria’s Ambassador Amar Benjama reiterated that the situation in Gaza has reached a “catastrophic level”, calling on Israel to fulfil its obligation to protect civilian lives under International Law.

“How is it possible that we can vaccinate these children, yet we cannot feed them?”, he asked, in relation to the second round of polio vaccinations underway, adding that the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is explicitly prohibited – referring to a “deliberate, calculated Israeli policy of starvation.”

Referring to Council resolution 2728, which “reiterates its demand for the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale,” the Ambassador said in the past week “a mere six trucks per day have been permitted to enter Gaza, a number so paltry it borders on the absurd given the scale of need.”

Mr. Benjama also issued a warning over legislation in the Israeli Knesset which could potentially halt UNRWA’s operations: “Such actions,” he said, “would strip Gazans of the backbone of humanitarian aid and further complicate the United Nations’ mission.”

France laments ‘human toll’ in northern Gaza

The Ambassador of France, Nicolas de Rivière, condemned Israeli airstrikes on civilian infrastructure in Gaza.  He called on the authorities to guarantee the protection of all civilians, in accordance with international humanitarian law.

“We express our alarm at the extremely grave nature of the situation in the north of Gaza,” he said, noting that the “human toll is already very heavy”.

Citing local authorities, he said there have been almost 300 victims, and 100 people wounded, in a week.

Mr. de Rivière said Israeli authorities must lift the obstacles hindering aid delivery. “Access has never been as restricted since the start of the conflict,” he added.

He also urged Israel “to cease projects aiming to criminalize UNWRA activities” and prevent the agency from operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

“That would only worsen a humanitarian situation which is already catastrophic,” he warned.

Any ‘policy of starvation’ would be ‘horrific and unacceptable’: US