Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said Israel blocked him from visiting the Gaza Strip, which is currently experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe due to Israel's attacks and blockade.

Lazzarini said he had "intended to go into Rafah today, but was informed my entry had been declined," speaking in a Cairo joint news conference with Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Monday.

Lazzarini later wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he had been denied entry by "Israeli authorities."

The U.N. agency, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, has been in crisis since Israel accused about a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, just a day after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Tel Aviv to prevent genocide in Gaza.

This led multiple donor nations including the United States to suspend funding although some of them have since resumed or increased it including Spain, Canada and Australia.

Israeli authorities did not respond to an AFP request for comment, but government spokesman Avi Hyman earlier Monday reiterated what he called Israel's position, that "UNRWA is a front for Hamas."

Shoukry expressed Cairo's "complete support" for the agency and criticized "unilateral actions to restrict UNRWA funding due to baseless accusations."

'Man-made starvation'

Among the dead are 168 UNRWA employees, according to the agency's latest figures.

Lazzarini on Monday said the U.N. had paid a "massive price in Gaza."

"More than 150 of our facilities have been completely destroyed in the Gaza Strip," he said.

"And a number of our staff were arrested and endured ill-treatment and humiliation during investigation."

In more than five months of war and siege, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated to what the U.N. has repeatedly warned is an imminent famine.

"This is man-made starvation," Lazzarini said.

The Gaza health ministry has in recent weeks recorded at least 27 deaths from malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children.

The U.N. said Monday that half of the territory's 2.4 million people are experiencing "catastrophic hunger and starvation".

Humanitarian aid operations have intensified in recent weeks, including airdrops and efforts for a maritime humanitarian corridor from Cyprus, but U.N. and other aid agencies warn that these are insufficient to meet the desperate needs in Gaza.