Israel bans humanitarian aid into northern Gaza amid onslaught: UN

Israel continues to ban the entry of humanitarian aid into the northern Gaza Strip amid a massive offensive on the area, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday.

"The Israeli authorities continue to deny humanitarian missions to reach the north with critical supplies including medicine and food for people under siege," UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.

"Hospitals have been hit and are left without power while injured people are left without care."

The UNRWA chief said shelters run by the agency in northern Gaza are so overcrowded.

"Some displaced people are now forced to live in the toilets," he said, adding that Gazans trying to flee "are getting killed, their bodies left on the street."

"Missions to rescue people from under the rubble are also being denied," Lazzarini said.

The UN official called for allowing humanitarian assistance to all people in Gaza.

"Humanitarian agencies, including UNRWA, must get access to north Gaza," he said. "Denying and weaponizing humanitarian assistance to achieve military purposes is a sign of how low the moral compass is.

"No one should beg to assist or to be assisted," Lazzarini said. "A cease-fire is the beginning to putting an end to this endless nightmare."

Last week, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said Israel's ban on the entry of aid has left 200,000 people in northern Gaza without food or drinking water.

The Israeli army has continued a massive offensive, now in its 17th day, in northern Gaza amid a suffocating siege on the area.

The onslaught was the latest episode in Israel's brutal onslaught that has killed more than 42,600 people, mostly women and children, and injured 99,800 others since last year following a Hamas attack.

The Israeli war has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.