Gaza: Europe and the Arabs
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that six attempts to deliver life-saving aid to the besieged northern Gaza Strip were prevented.
The three missions scheduled for the day before yesterday were aimed at delivering food and water to Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia. As for Wednesday's missions, they were intended to deliver food and water to Beit Lahia and Jabalia and provide protection services and psychosocial support for children in Jabalia. According to the UN daily news bulletin, a copy of which we received on Thursday morning.
Stéphane Dujarric, the UN spokesman, said that all attempts by the UN to reach those areas with food, water and health support had been rejected or obstructed. He added that the UN had submitted four additional requests to the Israeli authorities to reach those areas today, Thursday, with life-saving aid.
Humanitarian workers in Gaza reported continued reports of continued Israeli bombardment by air, land and sea across the Gaza Strip, causing further deaths, displacement and destruction. The UN spokesperson said military operations in Nuseirat camp, central Gaza, had intensified significantly earlier this week, with reports of people pleading for rescue teams to evacuate after the sudden advance of troops amid heavy gunfire.
Basic supplies running out
Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that repeated displacement was increasing the vulnerability of the population as essential resources were running out. As of Tuesday, 79 per cent of the Gaza Strip remained under active evacuation orders. Palestinians were ordered to move to and around Mawasi in southern Gaza, which lacks basic infrastructure and essential services.
OCHA noted that efforts to scale up the humanitarian response in southern and central Gaza continue to be hampered by active hostilities, deteriorating security and access constraints.
Partners working to address food insecurity say that more than 100 kitchens producing 400,000 meals a day in central and southern Gaza are at constant risk of closure. The World Food Programme reported, according to data collected in late October, that entire food groups have disappeared from Gaza markets.

Across the Strip, dairy products and eggs have almost disappeared, while few fruits and vegetables are available at very high prices. The prices of many commodities have increased by more than 1,000% compared to their prices before the current conflict.

The Commissioner-General of UNRWA said that the agency, its staff and millions of Palestinian refugees are going through a critical time. He called on UN member states to work to prevent the implementation of Israeli legislation related to UNRWA and to continue funding the agency.

In his address to the Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly, Philippe Lazzarini said: “In clear defiance of the UN Charter, General Assembly and Security Council resolutions and binding orders from the International Court of Justice, the State of Israel is acting unilaterally to change the established parameters for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Lazzarini pointed to the Israeli parliament’s adoption last month of legislation that could end the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the occupied Palestinian territory within three months. He said that implementing the legislation would have disastrous consequences, “In Gaza, dismantling UNRWA would lead to the collapse of the UN humanitarian response, which relies heavily on UNRWA’s infrastructure.”

Lazzarini stressed that dismantling the agency would not end the refugee status of the Palestinians, which would continue separately from the agency, but he warned that it would greatly harm the lives and future of the Palestinians.

The UN official spoke about the unique mandate given to UNRWA by the UN General Assembly, to directly provide the equivalent of public government services, including education for more than half a million children, and primary health care. UNRWA also provides human development services to Palestine refugees in the absence of a Palestinian state.

During conflicts, UNRWA provides humanitarian assistance to all those in need. Today, Lazzarini said, UNRWA has become a victim of war in Gaza, with at least 243 of its staff killed, others detained and reported being tortured. More than two-thirds of UNRWA’s buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged. Global disinformation campaign
In addition to attacks inside the occupied Palestinian territory, UNRWA is also subjected to a vicious global disinformation campaign, its Commissioner-General said. He said intense pressure from the Israeli government and groups linked to it has targeted parliaments and governments in UNRWA’s donor countries.
He added that attacks against UNRWA are justified by allegations that the agency is colluding with or being infiltrated by Hamas. The Commissioner-General stressed that UNRWA takes all allegations of violations of its neutrality very seriously and has zero tolerance for such violations.
He said that the independent review of UNRWA’s neutrality concluded that the agency has a stronger neutrality framework than any other comparable bodies. He noted that UNRWA has, for more than 15 years, shared the names of its staff members with the Israeli government on an annual basis and that the agency now does so every three months.