US incredibly concerned about humanitarian situation in Gaza, State Department says

By Simon Lewis and Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is incredibly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, particularly in northern Gaza, the State Department said on Wednesday, adding it is the subject of very urgent discussions between Washington and Israel.

"It has been the subject of some very urgent discussions between our two governments," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.

"We have been making clear to the government of Israel that they have an obligation under international humanitarian law to allow food and water and other needed humanitarian assistance to make it into all parts of Gaza, and we fully expect them to comply with those obligations."

The United Nations World Food Program on Wednesday said that aid entering the Gaza Strip has plummeted to its lowest level in months, forcing the agency to stop the distribution of food parcels this month.

"If the flow of assistance does not resume, one million vulnerable people will be deprived of this lifeline," it said, adding that the closure of crossing points, security issues and disruptions to routes at crossings were limiting aid delivery.

Reuters reported last week that food supplies to Gaza have fallen sharply in recent weeks because Israeli authorities have introduced a new customs rule on some humanitarian aid and are separately scaling down deliveries organized by businesses, according to people involved in getting goods to the war-torn territory.

Miller on Wednesday was separately asked about reports, including from CNN and Al Jazeera, that some Palestinians fleeing sites of Israel’s renewed military operation in northern Gaza were shot at as they fled.

"We have seen those reports. I can't speak to the details of them, but obviously that would be unacceptable. If they were Palestinian civilians that were fleeing that were being shot by Israeli forces, that would be unacceptable. We would expect the government of Israel to investigate it, and, if appropriate, we'd expect them to hold people fully accountable," he said.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis, Humeyra Pamuk, Kanishka Singh and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)