By Ada Zhang

UNITED NATIONS, May 14 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Security Council has called on Israel to lift its blockade on Gaza, where food supplies are dwindling and the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.

Addressing an emergency meeting held on Tuesday on Gaza's worsening humanitarian crisis, Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is deteriorating rapidly amid an Israeli blockade that has prevented the entry of food, medicine, water and shelter materials for more than 10 weeks.

"We have life-saving supplies ready, now, at the borders ... We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians, and not to Hamas. But Israel denies us access, placing the objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians," he told the security council.

According to Fletcher, some 70 percent of Gaza's territory is either under displacement orders or within Israeli-militarized zones, leaving hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in shrinking areas without basic necessities.

"Every single one of the 2.1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip face the risk of famine. One in five face starvation," he said, quoting a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO).

Israel blocked the entry of goods and supplies into Gaza on March 2, following the end of the first phase of a January ceasefire deal with Hamas. It resumed attacks on Gaza on March 18, with at least 2,720 Palestinians killed since then.

Concerns over Gaza's humanitarian crisis have deepened following Israel's recent declaration that it plans to intensify its ongoing military campaign.

Fu Cong, China's permanent representative to the UN, noted that nearly half a million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic levels of hunger. He urged Israel to uphold international humanitarian law and lift the blockade to allow unhindered access to food, medicine and other critical supplies.

Gaza has become the most dangerous place for humanitarian workers, with more than 400 humanitarian workers killed in the current conflict, Fu said.

"China urges Israel to immediately cease its military attacks on Gaza," Fu said, noting that military action cannot resolve the conflict and only prolongs the humanitarian crisis.

While welcoming the recent release of an American hostage, Fu called on the United States to play a fair and constructive role in bringing about a ceasefire.

Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander returned to Israel on Monday evening after spending 19 months in captivity in Gaza under Hamas, according to a statement from Israel's Defense Ministry.

Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer for the State of Palestine to the UN, said "Israel has been openly and brazenly blocking humanitarian aid for over two months now. This is engineered starvation."

He warned that the Israeli plan for distributing humanitarian aid is "just a continuation of the weaponization of aid" and stressed that it is "rejected by all UN agencies and all humanitarian organizations."

Earlier this month, the UN said that Israeli authorities were seeking to implement a new system for aid delivery in Gaza, one that would route humanitarian supplies through military-run distribution centers instead of allowing UN agencies and humanitarian groups to manage the process independently.

"This is a man-made catastrophe. It comes as a result of the inaction that has paralyzed multilateralism," said Toufik Koudri, deputy permanent representative of Algeria to the UN. "There is food. There is the ability to treat. What we are lacking is will and the capacity to impose the law and to enforce the law."

Barbara Woodward, UK permanent representative to the UN, said the UK calls on Israel to "urgently engage with the UN to ensure a return to delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles". "International law requires Israel to allow the rapid and unimpeded provision of humanitarian aid to all civilians," she said.

Speaking on behalf of the UK, Denmark, France, Greece, and Slovenia, Woodward said "blocking aid as a pressure lever is unacceptable."

"We strongly oppose both these actions, which will add to Palestinian suffering while doing nothing to serve the long-term interests of peace and security in the region," she said in a media stakeout at the UN after the security council meeting.

She said they were "deeply concerned at proposals to establish a new mechanism for the delivery of aid, which the UN has said would not meet humanitarian purposes or principles".

"Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool or a military tactic," Woodward noted. ■