Aid entering Gaza has almost completely dried up over the past week, according to the United Nations, while humanitarian agencies say the enclave needs a significant increase in the amount of food, medicine and other supplies to combat looming famine.
Since the war began, most aid to Gaza has entered through two crossing points at the southern end of the territory. Israel closed one of the facilities, Kerem Shalom, on May 5 after a nearby Hamas rocket attack killed four Israeli soldiers. has closed a second facility in Rafah on the Egyptian border as part of what it calls an “operation”.
Juliette Touma, communications director for UNRWA, the main U.N. agency aiding Palestinians, said six truckloads of flour arrived through the Kerem Shalom crossing on Saturday, and some fuel arrived through the same crossing on Friday. She said no other supplies had arrived via Kerem Shalom in the past week and the Rafah crossing remained closed.
“This has all happened since May 6,” Ms. Touma said in a text message. “Basically nothing.”
COGAT, the Israeli agency that coordinates aid to the Palestinians, said on Sunday that Israel was “working to enable aid to be delivered to Rafah via a road that runs part of the length of the enclave”. It did not provide further details.
The extremely limited amount of aid will almost certainly exacerbate food shortages that have accumulated over the past seven months.
Before the war began last October, about 500 relief trucks and many more commercial trucks were delivering supplies to Gaza every day. But the number of people entering the territory through the two main crossing points has dropped by about 75% since October 7, according to the United Nations. Some food is also delivered by air and sea, and most recently through the Erez crossing in northern Gaza, but aid groups say this is not enough to make up for shortfalls at the main crossing.
Meanwhile, Ms. Touma said about 300,000 liters of fuel are needed daily for all humanitarian purposes, including running hospital generators and rescue operations. Aid groups said last week they had only days left in fuel stocks.
Ms Touma said only 157,000 liters of fuel entered Gaza on Friday. The figure given by COGAT is 200,000 liters. The reason for this difference is unclear.
“In this desperate moment, severe fuel shortages are hampering everything due to obstruction of humanitarian aid entering Gaza through three crossing points,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Walker Turk said in a statement on Sunday. issue a statement.
The Israeli military said Hamas’ deadly rocket attack on Kerem Shalom on Sunday was fired from the Rafah area in southern Gaza. When Israeli forces seized the Rafah crossing last week, it told people to evacuate from the east of the city. The military has since expanded evacuation orders.
Turk said he “believes” that the latest evacuation order for civilians in Rafah “cannot be consistent with the binding requirements of international humanitarian law”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes a full-scale invasion of Rafah — something President Biden and other world leaders have strongly warned against — is necessary to defeat the remaining forces of Hamas, which leads the Deadly attack on Israel in October.
One reason for the overall blockage in aid is Egypt’s refusal to allow trucks to travel from the Rafah crossing to Kerem Shalom, according to two U.S. officials and a Western official. personnel involved in the aid operation, as well as two Israeli officials with knowledge of the situation. U.S. and Israeli officials have said they believe Egypt is trying to pressure Israel to withdraw its troops from Rafah.
After another rocket siren sounded in the Kerem Shalom area on Sunday, the Israeli military said two rockets fired from Rafah were intercepted by air defense systems.
