UNICEF has warned that 90 percent of Gaza’s residents lack access to safe drinking water [Moiz Salhi/Anadolu via Getty Images]
UN figures have issued stark warnings about humanitarian situation in Gaza following Israel’s decision to block aid entry and cut electricity to the enclave.
The UN’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that 90 percent of Palestinians in Gaza do not have access to safe drinking water, with UNICEF official in Gaza Rosalia Bollen saying that 600,000 people who had regained access to supplies since November 2024 have once again been cut off.
Likewise, the head of the UN’s Palestinian Refugees Agency (UNRWA) Phillipe Lazzarini, echoed warnings about the humanitarian crisis, telling reporters in Geneva that the situation is “deteriorating very, very quickly”.
“It is critical that humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza again to maintain the progress made during the first phase of the ceasefire and meet people’s basic needs,” he stressed.
Lazzarini added that the international community must support the agency in its efforts to support Palestinians and affirmed that the agency’s role can only be replaced by a Palestinian state with capable institutions.
Arab states have also condemned Israel’s blockade, warning that such action violates international law.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said cutting electricity to the enclave was “collective punishment”, while Qatar’s foreign ministry called the move a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”
Jordan’s foreign ministry spokesperson Sufyan Qudah said that the decision was “a clear continuation of the policy of starvation and siege imposed by Israel”.
The UN estimates that 1.8 million people urgently need water, sanitation, and hygiene assistance following Israel’s bombardment of the enclave resulting in the destruction of key infrastructure including hospitals, water and sanitation plants, as well as roads and housing.
UK-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) said cutting of electricity to the enclave “amounts to collective punishment, which is a war crime”.
MAP added that two hospitals, the Patients Friends Benevolent Society Hospital in Gaza City and the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, only have two weeks of fuel reserves left to run their operations.
Additionally, health officials from Gaza have said that four people were killed by Israeli strikes in the enclave in the past 24 hours, including three brothers in a drone strike on central Gaza and a woman in a drone strike on Rafah.
Negotiations between Israel and Hamas, through mediators Egypt, the US, and Qatar, are currently underway in the Qatari capital Doha in a bid to see the Gaza ceasefire continue.
Meanwhile, Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank have continued, with Israeli raids on the town of Azzun injuring two Palestinians who were assaulted by Israeli forces, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA, which added that dozens were arrested.
In the town of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, three Palestinians were also injured during an Israeli raid.
In Jenin, WAFA reported that three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces, including a 58-year-old woman who was killed in the east of the city.
On Monday evening, Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces killed senior Jenin Battalion member Abdel Rahman Abu Muna.
A spokesperson for the PA said that Abu Muna opened fire on security forces, who later wounded him in the ensuing fight. Hamas condemned the killing as a “dangerous escalation” by the PA.
