UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres has reiterated his call for “rapid, safe, unhindered, expanded & sustained humanitarian access throughout Gaza.”

“To be able to deliver effective humanitarian aid in Gaza: we need safety, we need equipment, we need more crossing points, we need access to the north,” he said in a post on X

Earlier, Israel’s coordination office for its activities in Palestine (COGAT) once again claimed that humanitarian aid is allowed into the besieged enclave “without limitation.”

However, in practice, border checks by Israeli authorities have severely limited the flow of aid into Gaza.

UN agencies and humanitarian organisations working on the ground say the aid that gets through is “a drop in the ocean” of what is needed amid the unfolding crisis in the war-torn territory, which is said to be on the brink of famine.

According to the UN humanitarian agency’s (OCHA) latest update, Israeli forces are inside Al Khair Hospital, between Khan Younis and Rafah, while three hospitals and an ambulance headquarters are under siege in Khan Younis.

The main medical facilities surrounded by heavy fighting in Khan Younis are Nasser Hospital, El Amal Hospital, Al-Aqsa Hospital and the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance headquarters

At Nasser Hospital, OCHA reported that “no one can enter or exit” due to bombardments nearby, including 400 dialysis patients in need of treatment.

Guterres’ comments came as war monitors reported that Palestinian armed groups are putting up a “deliberate defence against Israeli offensive operations” in southern Khan Younis and are battling Israeli forces in the west, south and east of the city.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) also disclosed that Israeli forces called in air strikes against Palestinian fighters in the north of the Gaza Strip, which the ISW and CTP said was vulnerable to Hamas re-infiltration.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad, one of several groups fighting in Gaza, said that its fighters fired rockets towards Israeli territory on Wednesday, according to the latest ISW/CTP report.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced that it has launched an investigation into an attack on a UN shelter in southern Gaza that killed at least nine people on Wednesday, but said it has already concluded that it was not the result of an “aerial or artillery strike” from its forces.

“After an examination of our operational systems, the [Israeli army] has currently ruled out that this incident is a result of an aerial or artillery strike,” the military said in a statement.

A “thorough review of the operations” is under way, it said, adding that it was also “examining the possibility that the strike was a result of Hamas fire.”

Tom White, the director of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), said that two “tank rounds” hit the UNRWA centre in Khan Younis that is providing shelter to some 800 Palestinians, killing nine people and injuring dozens more.

Many thousands more are said to be sheltering in the grounds of the UNRWA facility.

The deadly attack on the UN shelter has been universally condemned.

Israel’s far-right minister Smotrich accuses Qatar of ‘supporting and financing terror’

In other developments, Israel’s ultra-nationalist, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich took aim at Qatar in a social media post.

“Qatar is a country that supports terrorism and finances terrorism. She is the patron of Hamas and is largely responsible for the massacre committed by Hamas of Israeli citizens,” Smotrich wrote on X.

Smotrich was responding to comments made by Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Dr. Majed Al Ansari, who said Doha was “appalled” by alleged remarks made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticising Qatari mediation efforts to secure the return of Israeli captives from Gaza.

“For months, and following a successful mediation last year that led to the release of more than a hundred hostage, Qatar has been engaged in regular dialogue with the negotiating parties including Israeli institutions, attempting to establish the framework for a new hostage agreement and the immediate entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” Ansari said.

Al Ansari added, “If the reported remarks are found to be true, the Israeli PM would only be obstructing and undermining the mediation process, for reasons that appear to serve his political career instead of prioritizing saving innocent lives, including Israeli hostages.’”