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Israel continues to block aid into Gaza and is killing people fleeing in the north, UN officials warn

ISRAEL’S military continued to block humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza today, and reportedly killed people trying to flee Jabalia in the north, UN officials warned today.

The Israeli military (IDF) began blocking all supplies of food, medicine and fuel to the people under siege in northern Gaza on October 1.

On the 15th, the IDF allowed what the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said was “a token amount of aid” to enter, but since then nothing else has been allowed in.

The Israeli government has called on all civilians in the north to leave, but has continued to bomb the area, making escape just as dangerous for the Palestinians as staying in their destroyed homes.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said on social media today that humanitarian agencies must get access to north Gaza.

“Hospitals have been hit and are left without power, while injured people are left without care,” he said.

“UNRWA’s remaining shelters are so overcrowded, some displaced people are now forced to live in the toilets.

“According to reports, people attempting to flee are getting killed, their bodies left on the street. Missions to rescue people from under the rubble are also being denied.

“Denying and weaponising humanitarian assistance to achieve military purposes is a sign of how low the moral compass is.

UNRWA’s senior deputy director of affairs in Gaza Sam Rose told CNN today that “no supplies have been able to get into Jabalia, where over 100,000 people, we believe, are trapped.”

They’re encircled by the IDF, he said. “So we’re not able to get in, they’re not able to get out. No aid has got in there for two or three weeks now.”

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir spoke at a “Preparing to Resettle Gaza” rally today.

“We will encourage voluntary transfer of all Gazan citizens,” he said. “We will offer them the opportunity to move to other countries because that land belongs to us.”

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, people surveyed Israel’s latest strikes on their country this morning.

Overnight, their southern neighbour blew up branches of al-Qard al-Hassan bank in Beirut, across southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Al-Qard al-Hassan describes itself as a charitable organisation providing loans to people according to Islamic principles and forbids interest. Israel claims it bankrolls Hezbollah.

No civilians were reportedly killed in the strikes, but Israel did apologise to the Lebanese government today for killing three of its soldiers in a separate bombing in the south on Sunday.

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