Aid to Gaza fell significantly in February
The number of aid trucks entering Gaza fell significantly in February, data show, even as humanitarian leaders warned of famine and demanded Israel and others increase aid to civilians trapped in the enclave.
The deaths of dozens of people during a rush for food aid on Thursday underscored the level of desperation in the area.
An average of 96 trucks entered Gaza per day through Feb. 27, a 30 percent decline from the January average and the lowest monthly average since before the ceasefire in late November, according to data from UNRWA, the U.N. aid agency for Gaza.
“It was a matter of stop and go,” said UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma. “It was far from regular and far from enough. We should have seen an increase, but there has been a significant decrease.”
Emergency trucks carry food, medicine and other supplies, and while a reduction in number suggests a reduction in overall volume, the measure is not exact. A relatively small amount of aid has also been airlifted to people in Gaza.
The decline partly reflects the strictness of inspection measures at the Kerem Shalom border crossing in southern Israel, which has served as the main entry point since reopening in December. Goods also enter Gaza from Egypt through a border crossing near the city of Rafah, after undergoing Israeli inspection at a separate location.
The UN World Food Programme’s chief economist, Arif Husain, said other factors were also hampering deliveries, including insecurity in Gaza and the fact that there are currently only two border crossing points through which aid can pass.
Israeli checks on goods entering Gaza are intended to exclude items that could potentially be used by Hamas. Aid officials said in interviews that the inspection system, while necessary, caused significant delays, resulting in less overall aid. Before the war, about 500 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza every day.
In addition, Israeli protesters demanding the release of the approximately 100 hostages believed to be still alive in Gaza have hampered the flow of aid into Kerem Shalom.
US Special Envoy for Humanitarian Aid David Satterfield said last month that Israeli military attacks on Palestinian police officers make it virtually impossible to distribute aid once it enters Gaza because security forces normally shield aid from desperate populations.
“Very little aid has come in,” said Alaa Fayad, a veterinarian who has been displaced to the central city of Deir al Balah. He said the absence of Palestinian security forces had allowed gangs to steal some of the food arriving.
Jan Egeland, a former UN humanitarian coordinator and leader of the Norwegian Refugee Council’s humanitarian agency, indicated that Israel could allow an increase in humanitarian aid. amount of aid enter the territory.
“The system is broken, and Israel could fix it for the sake of the innocent,” he said in a press conference on Wednesday post in the social media network after a visit to the border area.
The Israeli agency that oversees policy for the Palestinian territories, known as COGAT, pointed the finger at those distributing aid. For example, the agency said that there were more than 200 trucks waiting to be picked up at Kerem Shalom and that Israel has not placed a limit on the amount of aid coming in.
The decline in aid suggests that calls by the United States and other governments for a rapid increase in aid to civilians have not immediately borne fruit. It can also have greater consequences. In an interim ruling in January, the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, ordered Israel to allow humanitarian aid and basic services in Gaza.
Some aid officials said they hoped a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would lead to an increase in aid. About 300 aid trucks — a spike since Oct. 7 — entered Gaza during one day of the weeklong ceasefire in late November.
Gaza was dependent on aid deliveries even before the war, when two-thirds of the population was supported with food aid. Today, food aid is needed for almost the entire population of 2.2 million people.
“The risk of famine is fueled by the inability to deliver critical food supplies to Gaza in sufficient quantities, and by the near-impossible working conditions our staff face on the ground,” said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program. A United Nations agency told the Security Council this week.
Gaya Gupta, Adam Sella And Approach Ibrahim reporting contributed.