Israeli block on aid deliveries to N. Wadi Gaza: UN

Reports the Israeli military stopped all aid missions to the north of Wadi Gaza block hundreds of thousands of Gazans from receiving relief deliveries, UN humanitarians said on Wednesday, reported Xinhua.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said this means humanitarian workers could not collect supplies from the northern entry point of Erez West. It also received multiple reports of military activity along the Israeli military road that separates north and south Gaza.

OCHA said it observed more displaced people crossing from Gaza City into Deir al Balah governorate, with at least 450 people on Wednesday, compared to just over 1,000 for all of last week.

Some of the new arrivals told aid workers that Israeli troops had shot at people trying to cross, forcing some of them to turn around. OCHA said there were reports of people south of Wadi Gaza being shot at while waiting for their relatives to cross into Deir al Balah, although it was not able to verify the reports.

The humanitarian office reiterated that Gaza civilians must be protected and their essential needs met wherever they are.

Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the UN relief agency for Palestinians, known as UNRWA, said that in the last 10 days, at least eight schools in Gaza were attacked. He said any party must never use schools for fighting or military purposes. They are not targets.

UNRWA said nearly 70 percent of the agency's schools have been attacked since the war in Gaza began, more than 95 percent of them were used as shelters when hit, and almost 540 people were killed while sheltering in UNRWA facilities.

OCHA said actions of the Israeli military forced food distribution points in Gaza to close and relocate. It said the World Food Programme (WFP) reported being forced to reduce rations further in Gaza City to ensure broader coverage for the newly displaced. So far this month in Gaza, WFP has provided food aid to more than 600,000 people and more than 500,000 people with food parcels and wheat flour.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that just 15 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are partially functional, and just 1,500 of the usual 3,500 hospital beds are available, 600 of them in field hospitals.

WHO said it documented in both Gaza and the West Bank more than 1,000 attacks on health care since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and appealed for the protection of health workers and health facilities, humanitarian access, and an immediate ceasefire.