Israel Aid Blockage Making Gaza 'Hungriest Region on Earth', UN Office Says

Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, January 2, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, January 2, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
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Israel Aid Blockage Making Gaza 'Hungriest Region on Earth', UN Office Says

Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, January 2, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, January 2, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo

Israel is blocking all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, with almost no ready-to-eat food entering what its spokesperson described as "the hungriest place on earth".

Spokesperson Jens Laerke said only 600 of 900 aid trucks had been authorized to get to Israel's border with Gaza, and from there a mixture of bureaucratic and security obstacles made it all but impossible to safely carry aid into the region, Reuters reported.

"What we have been able to bring in is flour," he told a regular news conference on Friday. "That's not ready to eat, right? It needs to be cooked... 100% of the population of Gaza is at risk of famine."

Tommaso della Longa, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, added that half of its medical facilities in the region were out of action for lack of fuel or medical equipment.



UN Teams Deploy to Syrian Coast as Wildfires Force Hundreds to Flee

The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, work to extinguish a wildfire, in Latakia countryside, Syria, July 6, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, work to extinguish a wildfire, in Latakia countryside, Syria, July 6, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
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UN Teams Deploy to Syrian Coast as Wildfires Force Hundreds to Flee

The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, work to extinguish a wildfire, in Latakia countryside, Syria, July 6, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, work to extinguish a wildfire, in Latakia countryside, Syria, July 6, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri

United Nations teams have deployed Sunday to the Syrian coast, where firefighters are battling wildfires for a fourth day.

UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria Adam Abdelmoula said in a statement that the fast-spreading blazes in the northwestern province of Latakia “have forced hundreds of families to flee their homes, while vast tracts of agricultural land and vital infrastructure have been destroyed.”

UN teams are “conducting urgent assessments to determine the scale of the disaster and to identify the most immediate humanitarian needs,” he said.

Firefighting teams from Türkiye and Jordan have joined Syrian civil defense teams, providing support from the air with helicopters. Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported that emergency crews are attempting to prevent the blazes from reaching the al-Frunloq natural reserve, with its “large, interconnected forests.”

Syrian Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Raed al-Saleh called the situation “extremely tragic.”

In a statement posted on X, he said the fires had destroyed “hundreds of thousands of trees” covering an area estimated at 10,000 hectares (38.6 square miles).

“We regret and mourn every tree that burned, which was a source of fresh air for us,” al-Saleh said.

The Syrian Civil Defense had expressed concerns over the presence of unexploded ordnance left over from the country’s nearly 14-year civil war in some of the wildfire areas.

Summer fires are common in the eastern Mediterranean region, where experts warn that climate change is intensifying conditions.

Below-average rainfalls over the winter have also left Syrians struggling with water shortages this summer, as the springs and rivers that normally supply much of the population with drinking water have gone dry.