The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has fiercely rejected accusations from the Israeli government and the newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), labelling them a “smear campaign” aimed at deflecting blame for Gaza’s worsening famine. The claims, amplified in a video circulated by Israel’s Government Advertising Agency, allege that UN agencies are deliberately withholding aid, a narrative UNRWA has dismissed as both false and dangerous.

“There are no idle trucks in Gaza. The real blockade is not at the distribution point, it’s at the border,” said Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s Director of Communications. She emphasised that aid convoys are being crippled by Israeli restrictions, security threats, and deliberate obstruction, not UN negligence.

The accusations come as Gaza sinks further into an artificial famine, one described by humanitarian experts as “constructed and deliberate.” Between May and July alone, more than half of UN aid missions were either blocked or delayed by Israeli military procedures. With civilians dying from hunger and humanitarian workers themselves collapsing from exhaustion and malnutrition, the situation is rapidly deteriorating.

UNRWA also criticised the GHF system, backed by Israel and the United States, for politicising aid and creating a two-tiered system that excludes vulnerable populations under the guise of security. Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini called the GHF model “chaotic and discriminatory,” accusing it of using biometric profiling and questionable affiliations to determine who receives life-saving assistance.

Amid mounting international alarm, over 115 NGOs and major UN bodies, including UNICEF, WHO, and the World Food Programme, have called for urgent, unhindered humanitarian access. As children die from hunger in real time and entire families starve in silence, the UN warns that Gaza's aid infrastructure is collapsing.

“This is not a moment for propaganda,” said Touma. “It’s a moment to act. Lives are slipping away every hour.”