Israel’s blockade in northern Gaza pasts 80 days

GAZA CITY

Humanitarian aid to northern Gaza, where Israel launched a ground offensive earlier in October, has largely been blocked for the past 80 days, with a global monitor warning on Dec. 25 that famine could be just weeks away in the region.

Deaths from starvation will likely pass famine levels in northern Gaza as soon as next month owing to Israel's “near-total blockade” of food and other aid, the U.S.-created global food-crisis monitor said.

 The finding by the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS) showed that unless Israel changes its policy, it expects the number of people dying of starvation and related ailments in northern Gaza to reach between two and 15 per day sometime between next month and March.

The internationally recognized mortality threshold for famine is two or more deaths per day per 10,000 people.

Northern Gaza has been one of the areas hardest hit by fighting and Israel's restrictions on aid throughout its 14-month war with Hamas militants. Israel, at one point, increased the number of aid deliveries it permitted into northern Gaza under pressure from President Joe Biden.

But the U.N. and aid groups say Israel recently has blocked almost all aid again. Only nine U.N. trucks have been able to bring in food and water over the past two months, Oxfam said.

The U.S. and U.N. official also on Dec. 25 told the press that Israel has failed to crack down on armed gangs attacking food convoys in Gaza, despite a pledge to do so in mid-October to help ward off famine in the Palestinian enclave.

In October, $9.5 million worth of food and other goods — nearly a quarter of all the humanitarian aid sent to Gaza that month — was lost because of attacks and looting

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers took control of a hospital in isolated northern Gaza after forcing all the patients and most of the doctors to leave, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Some of the patients had to walk to another hospital, while others were driven by paramedics.

The Israeli military confirmed its troops had entered the Indonesian Hospital in the town of Jabaliya as part of an operation.