Displaced Palestinians gather to receive food at a donation point in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in March 2024. Photo: Middle East Images via AFP
By Michelle Nichols, Reuters
The United Nations has suspended movements at night in Gaza for at least 48 hours to evaluate security issues following the killing of staff working for the World Central Kitchen food charity, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday.
He said the suspension started on Tuesday. The World Food Programme is continuing operations during the day, including daily efforts to send convoys to the north of Gaza "where people are dying," Dujarric said.
"As famine closes in we need humanitarian staff and supplies to be able to move freely and safely across the Gaza Strip," he told reporters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel mistakenly killed seven people working for World Central Kitchen in a Gaza airstrike on Monday, prompting condemnations and calls for explanations from the United States and other allies
The UN has long complained of obstacles to getting aid in and distributing it throughout Gaza.
The UN has repeatedly called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the six-month long war between Israel and Hamas. Israel is retaliating against Hamas in Gaza over a deadly 7 October attack on Israel by the Palestinian militants.
- This story was first published by Reuters