UN DK U.N. Urges A Spike In Humanitarian Aid To Gaza, British Foreign Minister: The Situation Is Getting Worse

Children of Gaza refugees take advantage of clean water assistance. (Twitter/@UNRWA)

JAKARTA - Members of the United Nations Security Council on Monday urged a surge in aid to reach people in need in Gaza, Palestine, warning the situation in the enclave is getting worse.

British Foreign Minister David Lemmy said there needed to be a "very large increase in aid" to Gaza, where most of its 2.3 million population had been displaced and health officials in the coastal enclave said more than 43,922 Palestinians had been killed in the 13-month Israeli attack on Hamas.

"The situation is devastating, and frankly, beyond understanding, and getting worse, not getting better," Foreign Minister Lemmy said.

"The cold season has arrived. The hunger is in sight, and after 400 days of this war, it is completely unacceptable that it is increasingly difficult to get help to Gaza," he said.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council Washington is observing carefully Israel's actions to improve the situation for Palestinians and engage with the Israeli government every day.

"Israel must also immediately take additional steps to alleviate the terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza," he stressed.

Earlier, President Joe Biden's Administration concluded this month that Israel is currently not blocking aid to Gaza and therefore does not violate US law, although Washington admits the humanitarian situation is still dire in the Palestinian enclave.

The assessment came after the US in its letter on October 13 gave Israel a list of measures that must be taken within 30 days to address the deteriorating situation in Gaza, with warnings that failure to do so could have an impact on US military assistance to Israel.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said Israel was trying to implement 12 of the 15 steps.

"We need to see all measures implemented fully and sustainably, and we need to look at concrete improvements in humanitarian situations on the ground," he said, including Israel, which allows commercial trucks to enter Gaza along with humanitarian aid, deals with persistent violations of the law, and impose pauses in fighting in much of Gaza's territory to allow aid to reach those in need.

Meanwhile, Tor Wennesland, the UN coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said humanitarian agencies were facing a challenging and dangerous operational environment in Gaza and restrictions on access that hindered their jobs.

"The humanitarian situation in Gaza, as winter begins, is very bad, especially developments in northern Gaza with large and nearly total population displacements as well as widespread land damage and deforestation, amid what appears to be a disruptive neglect of international humanitarian law," Wennesland said.

"The current condition is among the worst we've seen during the entire war and will not improve," he added.

Separately, Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, said Israel had facilitated the entry of hundreds of aid trucks a week, but there was a failure by aid agencies to gather aid and Hamas had looted the trucks. Hamas denied the allegations.

"The PBB must not only increase its obligation to distribute its assistance, but its focus must also be diverted to piracy of humanitarian aid that Hamas continues to feed the engines of terror and misery," said Ambassador Danon.