The United Nations is warning that it is extremely difficult and dangerous for them to provide aid in Gaza–and the situation may get even worse. Veuer’s Matt Hoffman reports.
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00:00The United Nations says Israel has made it nearly impossible to provide humanitarian aid in Gaza.
00:05The essential conditions for effective aid operations are severely lacking or entirely
00:10absent. Gaza has become the most dangerous place in which the UN and its partners operate,
00:16with at least 300 colleagues killed.
00:19Ramesh Rajasingham, the director of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
00:23Affairs, spoke at a meeting for member states in Geneva Thursday. He described an incident
00:28the previous day in which the Israeli military had approved an aid mission to Kamal Adwan
00:32Hospital in Gaza, only to keep the UN's team at a holding point for hours until
00:36the mission was ultimately aborted.
00:38And that's not an unusual practice. In September,
00:41less than 10 percent of coordinated missions to the north were facilitated by the
00:45Israeli authorities.
00:46As bad as the situation in Gaza is, other officials are warning that it may get even worse.
00:51On Wednesday, UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini warned against pending
00:55Israeli legislation which would ban UNRWA's presence and activity in Israel.
00:59Operationally, the entire humanitarian response in Gaza,
01:04which rests on UNRWA infrastructure, may disintegrate.
01:09Coordination with Israel would cease, further disrupting the provision of shelters,
01:15food and health care to people in desperate needs as winter approaches.
01:21And Reuters reports that with Israel now conducting operations in Lebanon as well,
01:25similarly chaotic conditions may emerge there.
01:28Gaza health authorities say over 42,000 people have been killed in the conflict there so far.