‘Food a Basic Right’ – UNRWA Urges Lifting of Israel’s Aid Blockade on Gaza

By Palestine Chronicle Staff
June 27, 2025

The director of medical relief in Gaza told Al Jazeera Arabic that 17,000 children in the Strip are suffering from malnutrition. He expressed concern that a large number of children will die as a result, unless serious intervention is taken.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) called on Friday for the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip to be lifted, emphasizing that access to food “is a basic human right.”

“The siege by the State of Israel on Gaza is preventing people in desperate need from getting essential food supplies,” UNRWA stated on X. “The siege must be lifted. Humanitarian aid, including through UNRWA, must be allowed at scale into Gaza now.”

For his part, the director of medical relief in Gaza told Al Jazeera Arabic that 17,000 children in the Strip are suffering from malnutrition. He expressed concern that a large number of children will die as a result, unless serious intervention is taken.

He called for Israel to be pressured to allow the entry of baby formula and medicine, and said many surgeries are postponed due to a shortage of medical personnel, supplies, and medicines.

Malnutrition and Death

Israel imposed a blockade on the entry of all aid into the enclave since March 2, including water, food and medical supplies. This exacerbated an already catastrophic humanitarian situation and has led to severe cases of malnutrition and the deaths of at least 57 children, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, cited by the WHO.

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UNRWA has criticized the US-backed Israeli aid distribution plan, implemented on May 27, for “putting lives at risk,” while the UN human rights office (OHCHR) has warned that the “weaponization of food” constitutes “a war crime.”

More than 500 Palestinians have been shot and killed at these aid distribution sites by Israeli forces who opened fire on the aid-seekers, including women, the elderly and children.

Investigation Urged

In an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic, the head of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza called for an international investigation into the killing of aid recipients, saying that the current aid mechanism is an attempt to sabotage the humanitarian system.

OHCHR spokesperson Thameen al-Kheetan has also called for these killings at aid sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to be investigated.

“Each of these killings must be promptly and impartially investigated, and those responsible must be held to account,” the al-Kheetan stated at a press briefing this week.

‘Lethal System’

UNRWA’s Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarani has also criticized the GHF as a “lame, medieval and lethal system that is deliberately harming people under the camouflage of “humanitarian aid” with lies, deceit, (and) cruelty.”

“Inviting starving people to their death is a war crime. Those responsible of this system must be held accountable,” he stated on X, adding “This is a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness.”

Lazzarini stressed that humanitarian principles “must be reinstated also to let the experts do their jobs & provide assistance with respect + dignity.”

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‘Death Traps’

Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN agency for coordination of humanitarian affairs, told the New York Times that the aid distribution hubs were “death traps.”

“Gaza is the hungriest place on earth,” he added in an interview on Wednesday.

Laerke added that “When we are able to bring anything in, it’s getting plundered immediately by the population. That’s the level of desperation.”

Over 56,000 Killed

Since Israel’s reneging on the ceasefire on March 18, it has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip through a bloody and ongoing aerial bombardment.

On October 7, 2023, following a Palestinian Resistance operation in southern Israel, the Israeli military launched a genocidal war against the Palestinians, killing over 56,000, wounding more than 131,000, with over 14,000 still missing.

Despite habitual condemnation by many countries around the world of the Israeli genocide, little has been done to hold Israel accountable.

Israel is currently under investigation for the crime of genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — are now officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.

The Israeli genocide has been largely defended, supported, and financed by Washington and a few other Western powers.

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Read also: Israeli soldiers instructed to fire at unarmed aid-seekers, as malnutrition soars in Gaza | Defend Democracy Press

Gaza’s Grassroots Effort to Ensure Humanitarian Aid Reaches Starving Palestinians | Defend Democracy Press

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