Critical aid lifelines into northern Gaza have been cut off, and no food aid has entered there since 1 October, said UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq, citing information from the World Food Progamme (WFP).

The main crossings into the north have been closed and will be inaccessible if the current escalation continues, he added.

WFP distributed its last remaining food stocks in the north to partners and kitchens sheltering newly displaced families, but these are barely enough to last two weeks.

Many of the locations were either forced to shut down, and others are at risk of shutting down if the conflict continues at this scale.

'At breaking point'

Mr. Haq said the situation in the south is also "at breaking point". No food distributions are taking place, while bakeries are struggling to secure wheat flour, putting them at risk of shutting down any day.

“Aid entering Gaza is at its lowest level in months. No one has received food parcels in this month due to constrained access of aid supplies,” he said.

Despite the challenges, humanitarians are responding as best they can. The UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA, and partners are distributing bread, ready-to-eat or cooked meals, and flour, in and beyond designated shelters.

On Thursday, an assessment team from the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, visited the school-turned-shelter of Al Rufaida, in Deir al Balah, where an Israeli airstrike had killed multiple people.

They noted the destruction or damage to three classrooms, 20 tents, five bathrooms, three water tanks, and the belongings of more than 60 families.

Families forced to flee

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said sudden displacement orders in the north are once again affecting tens of thousands of vulnerable boys and girls. OCHA warned that most displacement is now occurring in the north, where no tents are available to support families that have been newly uprooted.

The latest developments in North Gaza governorate have forced the suspension of protection services, the closure of malnutrition treatment services, and the shutting down of five temporary learning spaces, affecting hundreds of children, while the Kamal Adwan Hospital is seeing an influx of trauma injuries.