Israel continues to prevent UNRWA from delivering aid to Gaza, with Hamas calling it 'starvation war'

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas on Wednesday condemned Israel's continued refusal to allow the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) teams to access the northern Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid.

“What the UN agency stated today about the occupying army's continued prevention of its teams from reaching the northern Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid confirms the insistence of the terrorist occupation leaders on continuing the fascist starvation war against Palestinians, and the policy of prevention and systematic targeting of all means of relief and the delivery of essential aid to them,” Hamas said in a statement.

Israel's goal with such a policy is to "punish the Palestinian people and push them to emigrate from their land, under the weight of famine and ongoing massacres," it added.

Hamas called on the international community and the UN to "take immediate action and pressure" on Israel to "stop its declared crime of using starvation as a weapon, preventing the arrival of aid, and targeting relief workers."It also emphasized “the necessity of standing against Israel's targeting of UNRWA, and taking practical steps to hold it accountable for its continuous crimes against civilians in the Gaza Strip and against all humanitarian values.”

Earlier on Wednesday, UNRWA said in a post on X that “Israeli authorities continue to deny UNRWA access to the north with food assistance and other basic supplies.”

"In March, over half of the UN supplies delivered via Rafah and Kerem Shalom were UNRWA's,” it said, pointing out that 176 of its employees “were tragically killed” since the beginning of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, which killed less than 1,200 people.

At least 32,975 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 75,577 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which last week asked Israel to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala