GENEVA, Nov 12, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The UN on Tuesday warned that already low
levels of aid trickling into Gaza had dwindled further, with the situation in
the besieged north especially "catastrophic".

The warning from UNRWA, the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian
refugees, came as Israel said it was opening an additional aid crossing into
Gaza on the eve of a US-imposed deadline to improve humanitarian conditions
in the war-ravaged territory.

Asked about whether there were signs the situation had improved ahead of
Wednesday's deadline, Louise Wateridge, an UNRWA emergencies officer,
highlighted that "aid entering the Gaza Strip is at its lowest level in
months".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin last
month cautioned Israel that it had until November 13 to let more aid into
Gaza or risk the withholding of some military assistance from the United
States, Israel's primary supporter.

The letter was sent weeks before the November 5 US presidential election won
by Donald Trump, who has promised to give Israel freer rein.

Speaking to a Geneva media briefing via video-link from Gaza, Wateridge said
that "the average for October was 37 trucks a day into the entire Gaza
Strip... That is for 2.2 million people".

"Children are dying. People are dying every day," she said, stressing that
"people here need everything".

The situation is at its worst in northern Gaza, where a UN-backed assessment
at the weekend said that famine was imminent.

No food was permitted to enter besieged northern Gaza for an entire month,
Wateridge said, adding that UN requests to access the area have been
repeatedly denied.

Wateridge said that testimonies from the north painted "an endlessly
horrific" picture that was becoming "more critical" by the hour.

"Hospitals have been bombed, the doctors inform us that they have run out of
blood supplies, they have run out of medicine... there are bodies in the
streets."

Vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in already-ravaged north Gaza,
Israel began a major air and ground assault just over a month ago.

Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in 1,206 deaths,
mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 43,603 people in Gaza, according to
figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which the UN
considers reliable.