Israel says no more UNRWA food convoys to north Gaza: Lazzarini

The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) says Israel informed the UN that it will no longer approve any aid convoys run by the agency. “This is outrageous [and] makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man made famine. These restrictions must be lifted”, Philippe Lazzarini wrote in an X post. He warned that the move will speed up the coming of famine in the north of the Gaza Strip, and said that “many more will die of hunger, dehydration”. Famine is likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July, the world’s hunger watchdog, known as the Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC), said last week. The IPC said 70 percent of people in parts of northern Gaza were suffering the most severe level of food shortage, more than triple the 20 percent threshold to be considered famine. In all, 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza, about half the population, were experiencing “