By Merve Aydogan
HAMILTON, Canada (AA) - The UN on Monday reported that Israeli authorities have denied access to the Falouja area of Jabalya in northern Gaza for the fourth day, leaving people trapped under the rubble with no aid.
Citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said a separate request to distribute food, medicine, and fuel to power water facilities in Jabalya was also denied by Israel.
"The fuel needed to keep water facilities running has been depleted, and people are either risking their lives to find drinking water or consuming water from unsafe sources," Haq added.
Warning "that almost no humanitarian aid is getting into Jabalya refugee camp," Haq stated that telecommunications in the area are severely disrupted, making it difficult for civilians to access aid, as Israeli airstrikes and shelling continue across northern Gaza.
"Between 6 October and yesterday, OCHA says 28 requests for coordinated humanitarian movements into Jabalya, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia – all in North Gaza Governorate – were denied by Israeli authorities and seven faced impediments," he said, adding that only four out of 66 planned humanitarian missions through the Israeli checkpoint from southern to northern Gaza were facilitated during the first 20 days of October.
Last week, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said Israel’s ban on the entry of aid has left 200,000 people in northern Gaza without food or drinking water.
The Israeli army has continued a massive offensive, now in its 17th day, in northern Gaza amid a suffocating siege on the area.
The onslaught was the latest episode in Israel’s brutal onslaught that has killed more than 42,600 people, mostly women and children, and injured 99,800 others since last year following a Hamas attack.
The Israeli war has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.