UN Warns: Deaths Surge in Gaza Despite Israeli Temporary Pause

(MENAFN) Casualties among Palestinians seeking aid and some humanitarian workers in Gaza keep climbing even as Israel enforces a temporary military pause, according to UN humanitarian officials on Wednesday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported, "We are still seeing casualties among those seeking aid and more deaths due to hunger and malnutrition." "UN partners report high workloads, burnout and exhaustion, due mainly to the lack of food, among front-line workers."

Mental health and psycho-social support staff are similarly strained, OCHA noted.

Though conditions for delivering aid remain far from ideal, the UN and its partners are seizing every possible moment during the tactical pause to assist those in urgent need.

OCHA pointed to the tightly controlled Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing as a prime example of operational hurdles. To access it, "Israeli authorities must approve the mission, provide a safe route through which to travel, provide multiple 'green lights' on movement, as well as a pause in bombing, and, ultimately, open the iron gates to allow us to enter," the office explained.

The UN has managed to bring limited fuel shipments into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem and Zikim crossings, with nearly half of this fuel allocated to northern Gaza’s critical health, emergency, water, and telecommunications services.

However, OCHA stressed that the amount of fuel entering Gaza remains insufficient to cover essential life-saving needs.

OCHA emphasized that a lasting ceasefire is now more crucial than ever, as isolated tactical pauses fail to ensure the steady delivery of essential supplies needed to address Gaza’s overwhelming humanitarian demands.

Coordination between the UN, its partners, and Israeli authorities continues to facilitate humanitarian movements inside Gaza.

"Yesterday, three facilitated missions allowed our staff to collect cargo containing food from the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings and allowed for fuel to be transferred within Gaza," OCHA said. "However, the others faced impediments, particularly delays in receiving the green light to move by the Israeli authorities, and one had to be canceled."

For aid efforts to scale effectively and address Gaza’s overwhelming needs, OCHA urged that all crossings must open, a broad spectrum of humanitarian and commercial supplies be permitted entry, aid movements inside Gaza be protected and expedited, and relief workers be granted unrestricted access to perform their duties.

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