The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has confirmed that children in the Gaza Strip continue to face harsh humanitarian conditions, as Israel continues to impose restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid, exacerbating their daily suffering and threatening their lives and future.
Aid restrictions ongoing
In a post on its official account on the ‘X’ platform on Saturday, the agency explained that children in Gaza should enjoy warmth, adequate food and a sense of security, allowing them a normal opportunity to grow and look forward to a better future, but the current reality deprives them of their most basic rights. It stressed that there is an urgent and pressing need to bring humanitarian aid into the Strip, which is currently blocked by Israeli restrictions.
UNRWA added that, like other international relief organisations, it continues to work in extremely difficult conditions and remains ready to expand its humanitarian interventions as soon as supplies, including food, medical supplies, shelter materials and basic children’s needs, are allowed in.
The agency stressed the need for the immediate and unconditional lifting of all restrictions on humanitarian aid, warning that continued disruption to its entry would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis, especially among children, who are the most vulnerable and affected by the war and siege.
UNRWA’s warning comes at a time when living conditions in the Gaza Strip are deteriorating at an unprecedented rate, with acute shortages of food, medicine and heating materials, and increasing health and psychological risks threatening hundreds of thousands of children, amid a harsh winter and a humanitarian infrastructure exhausted by the ongoing war.
Israel violates ceasefire agreement – again and again
The ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip included clear humanitarian provisions, stipulating the facilitation of regular and adequate access for humanitarian aid, including food, medicine, shelter and fuel, and ensuring its safe delivery to all areas of the Strip, especially camps and displacement centres. The agreement also obliged the parties concerned to take urgent measures to address the catastrophic humanitarian situation and provide temporary shelter for displaced persons whose homes had been destroyed during the war.
However, according to UN and human rights reports, the reality on the ground shows that Israel has effectively reneged on these commitments by continuing to impose severe restrictions on the crossings, reducing the amount of aid allowed to enter, and preventing the entry of essential items such as tents, plastic sheeting, building materials, and supplies needed to repair damaged homes. This has led to thousands of trucks loaded with aid being stuck at the crossings, while the suffering of the population inside the Strip worsens.
Relief organisations, led by UNRWA, affirm that this deliberate obstruction has turned the humanitarian provisions of the agreement into formal commitments that are not being implemented, and has contributed to deepening the housing crisis, especially with the onset of winter, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are left without safe shelter, facing the cold and rain in dilapidated tents or in the open.
Featured image via the Canary
By Alaa Shamali
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