Gaza aid crisis deepens as border closure stretches into 50th day

The UN relief coordination office, OCHA, said on Tuesday that this marks the longest period without aid or commercial supplies entering the Strip since the conflict began in October 2023.

“Right now, it is probably the worst humanitarian situation ever seen throughout the war in Gaza,” OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke told journalists at a briefing in Geneva.

Over 2.1 million Gazans are facing acute shortages of food, medicine, fuel, and clean water.

However, humanitarian supplies are stockpiled just across the border, including nearly 3,000 trucks of life-saving aid prepared by the Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA), which Israeli authorities are refusing to allow in.

Deliberate, man-made suffering

“Hunger is spreading and deepening – deliberate and man-made,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.

“Gaza has become a land of desperation…humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip and a weapon of war.”

The agency warned supplies inside Gaza are nearly all gone, with food stocks running dangerously low and only 250 food parcels left.

Flour has run out. Bakeries are shutting down, hospitals are collapsing without fuel or medicine, and essential items have soared in price.

“Two million people – a majority of women and children – are undergoing collective punishment,” Mr. Lazzarini said.

“The siege must be lifted, supplies must flow in, the hostages must be released, the ceasefire must resume.”

Aid effort continues

Despite these conditions, UNRWA continues to operate on the ground, providing water, collecting solid waste, and running vital health services.

Eight heath centres and 39 medical points are still providing around 15,000 consultations daily. A blood donation drive to support local hospitals in urgent need of transfusions is also underway.