HUMANITARIAN aid to Gaza has largely been blocked for the past 66 days, the United Nations has said.
It means that between 65,000 and 75,000 Palestinians have been left without access to food, water, electricity or health care.
It comes after we told last week how a new report from Amnesty International concluded Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
In the north, Israel has continued its siege of on Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabliya with Palestinians living there denied aid, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
Meanwhile, only four UN-supported bakeries are currently operating throughout the Gaza Strip, all of them in Gaza city, according to OCHA.
Senior UN humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kagg told reporters after briefing the UN Security Council behind closed doors on Tuesday that civilians are facing an “utterly devastating situation”.
She explained that she and other UN officials have repeatedly asked Israel for access for convoys to North Gaza and elsewhere, to allow in commercial goods, to reopen the Rafah crossing from Egypt and to approve dual-use items.
Latest attacks
Al Jazeera has reported that Israeli attacks on the north and centre of the bombarded Gaza Strip have killed dozens of people.
In the early hours of Wednesday, Israeli forces bombed a residential building in Beit Lahiya.
Local media reports say at least 30 displaced people were living in the multistorey home of the Abu Tarabish family before it was struck with at least 20 people killed – though there are fears the death toll could rise.
Al Jazeera reports that footage showed people using their bare hands to remove large pieces of concrete from the ruins of the structure, with one child’s body removed from the rubble.
Later in the day, another attack on the residential home in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed at least seven people, all members of the same family.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said another two people were killed by an Israeli air raid on a house in Gaza City.
