Israeli forces are blocking humanitarian missions aimed at rescuing people who are trapped under the rubble due to Israeli strikes in north Gaza, the UN has reported. The development comes as Israel wages a horrific ethnic cleansing campaign in the north that has killed hundreds of Palestinians so far.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory said on Sunday that it has been requesting that Israel grant them access to north Gaza for days so that workers can reach the dozens of people buried alive under the rubble. Those trapped are likely to die if Israel continues denying access, the group said.
“Every minute counts. Previously, delayed approvals resulted in rescue teams only recovering dead bodies,” OCHA wrote.
The group shared a plea from someone who had escaped from the rubble created by an Israeli airstrike on Friday but whose family is still buried alive. The man, Shamekh Abeeb Ad Dibes, said that 32 people were trapped by the attack, and only 18 people have managed to escape. There are still 14 people waiting to be rescued, including children as young as two years old, he said.
“We’re asking for your humanitarian help because they’re alive, under rubble,” he said. “Please help us.”
If Israel continues blocking rescue missions, those left may join the over 10,000 Palestinians estimated to be trapped under the rubble and presumed dead due to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. These deaths, which are often due to extreme physical trauma or suffocation, are not included in the official death toll reported by health officials because they are impossible to account for.
Israeli forces have imposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid in north Gaza over the past two weeks while issuing mass evacuation orders, forcing Palestinians to flee and then killing them while they do. This blockade is preventing medicine and food from entering the region, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said on Monday.
“Humanitarian agencies including UNRWA must get access to north Gaza. Denying and weaponizing humanitarian assistance to achieve military purposes is a sign of how low the moral compass is,” Lazzarini said.
UNRWA has reported that Israel’s attacks on health care have caused ICU patients to die after electricity cuts, while remaining hospitals are operating on bare minimum supplies and staff.
The blockade is part of Israel’s plan, known as the “Generals’ Plan,” to empty the entirety of north Gaza of Palestinians, either by death or forced displacement. According to Al Jazeera, medical sources in Gaza say that the Israeli military has killed at least 640 Palestinians in north Gaza over the past 17 days of its mass killing and starvation campaign.
Over the weekend, pictures and videos emerged showing Israeli forces rounding up crowds of Palestinians from Jabalia refugee camp and forcing them to leave, which some have labeled as a “death march.” There is nowhere for displaced people to go; Lazzarini has reported that UN shelters in the region are so overcrowded that people are being forced to take shelter in bathrooms.
The UN Human Rights Office has expressed concern that Israel is aiming to exterminate the Palestinian population of north Gaza.
“The UN Human Rights Office is increasingly concerned that the manner in which the Israeli military is conducting hostilities in north Gaza, along with unlawful interference with humanitarian assistance and orders that are leading to forced displacement, may be causing the destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza’s northernmost governate through death and displacement,” the group said.
“For two weeks since 6 October, the Israeli military has taken measures that make life in north Gaza impossible for Palestinians while repeatedly ordering the displacement of the entire governorate,” the statement continued.
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