GENEVA (Reuters) – There is a risk that Gaza experiences another hunger crisis if Israel continues to block aid, the head of the U.N. Palestinian relief agency (UNRWA) in Gaza said on Monday, warning the situation is quickly deteriorating.
Israel cut aid flows of food, medicine and fuel imports earlier this month, a move it said was designed to pressure militant group Hamas in ceasefire talks. On Sunday, it announced an electricity cut, which aid groups say would deprive Gazans of clean water.
“I think the more we go ahead (with aid blockages), the more we will see the impact increasing on the population. And obviously, the risk … is that we go back to situation we experienced months ago about deepening hunger in the Gaza Strip,” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.
“Whatever the intent is, it’s clearly a weaponization of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” he told reporters. “We have seen the situation is deteriorating very, very quickly.”
In the same press briefing in Geneva, he described the agency’s financial situation as “critical and precarious”.
Israel, which has long alleged that UNRWA has ties to Hamas, barred the agency from its territory in January.
Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva said earlier on Monday that it is actively encouraging U.N. agencies and others to take over UNRWA’s work in Gaza.
Lazzarini said the agency was subject to a disinformation campaign and that it has not seen any other groups replacing it in Gaza so far.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Christina Fincher)
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