Palestinians are “facing increasingly poor survival conditions” in parts of northern Gaza besieged by Israeli forces because virtually no aid has been delivered for 40 days, the UN has warned.

The UN said all its attempts to support the estimated 65,000 to 75,000 people in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and Jabalia this month had been denied or obstructed, forcing bakeries and kitchens to close.

Earlier this month, a UN-backed assessment said there was a high probability that famine was imminent in areas of northern Gaza.

The Israeli military said its six-week offensive was aimed at regrouping Hamas fighters and was facilitating evacuations of civilians and deliveries of supplies to hospitals.

Hundreds of people were killed and between 100,000 and 130,000 others were displaced to Gaza City, where the UN said essential resources like shelter, water and health care were severely limited.

UN agencies had planned 31 missions to besieged areas of the northern Gaza governorate between November 1 and 18, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Twenty-seven were rejected by Israeli authorities and the remaining four were severely obstructed, meaning they were unable to accomplish all the work they had planned to do.

“This comes as the IPC Famine Review Committee declared only 11 days ago that parts of northern Gaza were facing imminent risk of famine – and that immediate action was needed in a few days, not a few weeks,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

“The result is that bakeries and kitchens in the northern Gaza governorate have closed their doors, nutritional support (for children and pregnant and lactating women) has been suspended and water supplies and sanitation facilities have been suspended. been completely blocked. »

Mr Dujarric said access to the three barely functioning hospitals also remained severely restricted, amid what he called “desperate shortages” of medical supplies and fuel.

On Sunday, a World Health Organization-led mission to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia was able to deliver 10,000 liters of fuel and transfer 17 patients, three unaccompanied children and 22 caregivers to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

However, Mr. Dujarric said aid workers were forced to unload all the food supplies and some medical supplies they were carrying at an Israeli military checkpoint before reaching the hospital.

Kamal Adwan’s director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, warned on Wednesday that the situation there was becoming “even more catastrophic”.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry quoted him as saying the hospital had 85 patients receiving “the minimum level of health care” and was in need of children’s food and infant formula. to treat a growing number of cases of malnutrition.

Since Tuesday, 17 children have arrived at the emergency room showing signs of malnutrition and one elderly man died from severe dehydration, he added.

There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

But data from the Israeli military agency responsible for humanitarian affairs in Gaza, Cogat, indicates that 472 aid trucks had entered northern Gaza via the West Erez crossing as of November 17, without specifying whether some of this Aid was allowed into besieged areas.

Cogat also said it continued to work with international partners to “facilitate broad humanitarian responses for the civilian population of Gaza.”

On Monday, a boy from Beit Lahia told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today program that he and his family fled to Gaza City after the Israeli army dropped leaflets from a quadcopter, ordering their immediate evacuation.

“The road from Beit Lahia to Gaza (city) was bumpy and there was no transportation available for us. When we arrived, we found nothing… neither food nor drink. We headed towards the schools, but there was nothing left because the number of displaced people… was enormous,” he said.

“As a result, we were thrown onto the streets and didn’t know where to go. We are six families living on the street, sitting on sand, dirt and debris.

The Israeli military said in a statement Monday that its forces had killed “dozens of terrorists in close encounters and targeted strikes” in the Beit Lahia area over the past week.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Civil Defense told the AFP news agency that a drone had killed two people, including a 15-year-old girl, at a school housing displaced families in Beit Lahia.

The agency’s first responders also found the bodies of seven people killed in an overnight Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia, he added.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and another 251 taken hostage.

Since then, more than 43,980 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.