Despite having all the
required documentation, a convoy delivering aid was refused access to northern
Gaza, according to the UN children's agency Unicef, which informed the BBC that
this happens frequently.
James Elder, a
spokesperson for Unicef, who was riding in the convoy on a lorry, added that he
saw two Gazan fishermen shot dead while waiting at a checkpoint.
The Israel Defense Forces
retaliated, claiming that Mr. Elder was giving a "partial picture"
and that the paperwork for the Unicef truck in the convoy had been incorrectly
completed.
They told him they would
be "happy if there is an air strike" on their homes to put an end to
their agony, according to Mr. Elder.
In an interview with the
BBC's Today programme, Mr Elder said: “They’re so despairing, they’re so
broken, they’ve lost so many family members, they have nothing left.”
He said the areas of Gaza
being denied aid were suffering from levels of severe malnutrition
unprecedented in Gaza.
He added that doctors in
Gaza had needed to be trained to deal with the most serious cases as they had
not experienced them in the past.
His remarks came after World
Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on
Wednesday that a significant proportion of Gaza's population were facing
"catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions".
According to Dr. Tedros,
more than 8,000 children under the age of five had received an acute
malnutrition diagnosis and treatment, more than 1,500 of them had a more severe
type.
According to the health
ministry administered by Hamas, over 37,000 people have died and hundreds of
thousands more have been injured or displaced as a result of Israel's offensive
in Gaza.
After Hamas struck Israel
on October 7, murdering over 1,200 people and capturing 251 more as captives
and sending them back to Gaza, the conflict broke out.
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