THE UNITED Nations emergency relief co-ordinator urged Israel today to lift its blockade of aid into the Gaza Strip, saying the halting of humanitarian aid amounts to “cruel collective punishment.”

Israel has blocked any humanitarian aid from entering the territory since it broke the ceasefire agreement with Hamas in March, throwing Gaza into what is believed to be the worst humanitarian crisis in nearly 19 months of bombings.

Israel claims that the blockade and its renewed military campaign are intended to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages it still holds and to disarm.

Israel’s latest destruction of Gaza followed Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack, in which the militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251.

Hamas is still holding 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

As Israel continued its strikes on the Palestinian enclave, another 18 people were killed and dozens more were wounded, Gaza’s Health Ministry said today.

Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator, said today that while the hostages should be released and should never have been taken in the first place, international law mandates that Israel allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“Aid, and the civilian lives it saves, should never be a bargaining chip,” he said in a statement.

“Blocking aid starves civilians. It leaves them without basic medical support. It strips them of dignity and hope. It inflicts a cruel collective punishment. Blocking aid kills.”

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned of severe shortages of food, water and medicine in Gaza as medical services collapse and charity kitchens shut down because of a lack of supplies.

Hospitals have reported that cases of malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women are rising sharply and most newborns are now being born underweight.

Mr Fletcher stressed that “the humanitarian movement is independent, impartial and neutral. We believe that all civilians are equally worthy of protection.”

He said that a recent proposal by Israeli authorities regarding ways to distribute aid “does not meet the minimum bar for principled humanitarian support.”

Israel has proposed taking over aid distribution in Gaza or using private companies for the distribution.

Israeli strikes in Gaza killed more than two dozen people from Wednesday afternoon into Thursday, bringing the overall death toll since the war started to more than 52,400 people, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

More than 2,300 of the deaths have occurred since Israel unilaterally ended the ceasefire with Hamas on March 18, it said.

The ministry says more than half the dead have been women and children. Israel says that it has killed more than 20,000 militants, without providing details on those deaths.

This afternoon, the ministry said the bodies of 18 people and 77 wounded people had arrived at hospitals in the past 24 hours.

The bodies of another eight people — including three children and three women — arrived at Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis, the hospital said later on Thursday.