UNRWA urges Israel to allow aid passage into Gaza

By Ibrahim Mukhtar

ANKARA (AA) – The UN refugee agency UNRWA on Wednesday called on Israel to allow “timely” passage of humanitarian aid and its staff into the besieged Gaza Strip amid Israeli attacks on the Palestinian territory.

In a statement, UNRWA said it did “not receive approval for critical access to Gaza for essential humanitarian supplies meant to provide relief to the distressed population, including particularly vulnerable persons such as pregnant women, children, persons with disabilities and serious medical conditions, and the elderly, despite immense needs following nine days of conflict.”

The UN body also underlined the importance of respecting international humanitarian law by parties to the conflict “to allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of impartial humanitarian relief to the civilian population, and to respect and protect their right to essential levels of human rights such as food, primary health care, and basic shelter and housing.”

It also stressed the obligations of the occupying power to ensure food and medical supplies for the civilian population as enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention.

“It cannot wait,” Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA Director of Strategic Communications said in an appeal for an urgent humanitarian truce. “Every day without a cease-fire is a day with more lives lost, more homes and livelihoods destroyed. This is unacceptable.”

At least 221 Palestinians have been killed, including 63 children and 36 women, and 1,530 others injured in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip since May 10, according to the Health Ministry.

Twelve Israelis have also been killed in Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

Recent tensions that started in East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan spread to Gaza as a result of Israeli assaults on worshippers in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.