UNICEF urges access to Gaza for aid convoys

The UN children's organization UNICEF has urged Israel to allow aid convoys access to the Gaza Strip to help alleviate the plight of some one million children and young people there.

"No aid has been allowed into the Gaza Strip since 2 March 2025 – representing the longest period of aid blockage since the start of the war," UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder said Saturday.

This has led to shortages of food, safe water, shelter, and medical supplies, he explained.

Without these essentials, malnutrition, diseases and other preventable conditions would likely surge, leading to an increase in preventable child deaths, he added.

"UNICEF has thousands of pallets of aid waiting to enter the Gaza Strip," Beigbeder said. "Most of this aid is lifesaving – yet instead of saving lives, it is sitting in storage. It must be allowed in immediately. This is not a choice or charity; it is an obligation under international law."

"For the sake of more than 1 million children in the Gaza Strip, we urge the Israeli authorities to ensure, at a minimum, people's basic needs are met, in line with its obligations under international humanitarian law," Beigbeder said further.

"This includes their legal responsibility to ensure that families are supplied with the food, medical and other essential supplies they need to survive."

On March 2, after the first phase of a ceasefire had expired, Israel had wanted to pressure the Palestinian resistance group Hamas by completely halting aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time that he had decided not to accept a US proposal to extend the first phase of the ceasefire in view of Hamas' refusal to do so.