AMMAN/GAZA, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East warned on Thursday that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is "dire" as restrictions on aid access continue.
"Across Gaza, humanitarian conditions remain dire, along with constraints on humanitarian access," UNRWA said in a press statement.
The UN agency said that it continues to operate, providing displaced people with essential healthcare, education, shelter, food assistance and protection services.
"However, the scale of needs exceeds what we are currently allowed to do," it said. "Restrictions must be lifted."
This comes as Bassam Zaqout, director of medical relief in Gaza, warned of a deepening health crisis with the arrival of Ramadan, describing the health sector as in "deadly paralysis."
Zaqout, in statements to the official Voice of Palestine radio, said that hospitals in the Gaza Strip are on the verge of complete shutdown due to the fuel crisis and shortage of spare parts for generators.
Calling the current ceasefire "illusory," he said the ongoing Israeli "aggression" continues to claim lives and inflict daily injuries on the already strained hospitals.
He also said that Gazans face extreme exhaustion due to severe shortages of water and food. He criticized Israeli policies for turning humanitarian aid into "commercial activity," allowing goods to enter at "astronomical" prices that 80 percent of the population cannot afford.
The office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, a body under Israel's Defense Ministry, said Sunday that 4,200 humanitarian aid trucks had entered the Gaza Strip between Feb. 8-14.
"The trucks carried food, medical supplies and shelter equipment, based on the prioritization by the international organizations," it said.
Meanwhile, Gaza-based health authorities said Thursday that the bodies of two Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours arrived at hospitals in the strip, bringing the death toll since the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas came into effect on Oct. 10, 2025, to 611, with 1,630 injuries.
The authorities added that the cumulative casualty toll from the Israeli military operation in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023 has now reached 72,069 deaths and 171,728 injuries. ■
