Jerusalem [Israel], September 27: Israeli forces have intensified the Gaza Strip offensive to airstrikes every eight or nine minutes, devastating civilians, including thousands fleeing besieged Gaza City, UN humanitarians said Friday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the Gaza health authorities reported the surge in the previous 24 hours.
"Teams on the ground also report shelling, helicopter and quadcopter fire, as well as gunfire toward people waiting for aid," OCHA said. "Dozens of people have reportedly been killed and over 200 others injured."
The office said the people fleeing Gaza City mainly head to southern Gaza, where conditions are described as dire.
"Teams monitoring the movement of people inside the strip counted about 16,500 displacements from northern Gaza southwards," OCHA said.
The office said that the hundreds of thousands of people still in Gaza City are heavily reliant on humanitarian assistance as more critical services there have been forced to close or move.
However, humanitarian teams across the strip continue to face access denials and significant challenges that prevent them from providing support at the scale needed, it said.
Out of 15 movements that the United Nations tried to coordinate with Israeli authorities to support people in different parts of Gaza on Thursday, only seven were fully facilitated, OCHA said.
At the same time, the office said humanitarian teams were able to collect fuel, medical items and other supplies from the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing, among other missions. They were prevented from trucking water in the north and were not allowed to access other crossings, including to collect food.
The office reminded Israel, Hamas and any armed group that aid workers and their vehicles must not be attacked or denied critical access on the ground.
In the West Bank, the office said that the only direct crossing between Jordan and the occupied Palestinian territory, the Allenby Bridge, opened for passengers but not for cargo.
The office said the continued closure of Allenby for imports and exports, including humanitarian cargo, is a significant concern. About 35 percent of the supplies monitored by the world body that have been cleared and are ready to ship to Gaza are in Jordan.
According to OCHA, the number of Palestinians in the West Bank who have been displaced since Oct. 7, 2023 due to attacks by Israeli settlers and access restrictions has surpassed 3,000. Half of them are children, mainly from Bedouin and herding communities.
OCHA said it is essential to see an end to the violence, and to see protection, accountability and respect for international humanitarian law across the West Bank.
Source: Xinhua
