Breakdown of civil order in Gaza further impedes aid delivery: UNRWA
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has warned that a breakdown of civil order in Gaza had allowed widespread looting and smuggling, making aid delivery even harder.
More than eight months of war have led to desperate humanitarian conditions in the besieged Palestinian territory and repeated UN warnings of man-made famine there.
“Gaza has been decimated,” Lazzarini told the agency’s advisory body. “Children are dying of malnutrition and dehydration, while food and clean water wait in trucks,” he said, according to a written version of his closed-door address in Geneva.
“The breakdown of civil order has resulted in rampant looting and smuggling that impede the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid,” Lazzarini said, adding that UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, was “staggering under the weight of relentless attacks”.
UN agencies repeatedly warn of severe shortages of vital supplies in Gaza, exacerbated by restrictions on access by land and the closure of the key Rafah crossing with Egypt since Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side in early May.
‘No help is entering Gaza’: EU’s Borrell
European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says “despite all tactical pauses announced, the situation is that no help is entering Gaza”. “The help is stockpiling outside of the border. Some of these goods are perishing,” he said upon his arrival at the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg.
Borrell said that both Hamas and Israel are failing to adhere to US President Joe Biden’s ceasefire plan that the EU is supporting.
“The last declaration from Prime Minister Netanyahu confirms that unfortunately this plan is not going to be implemented. We desperately need a ceasefire that could allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. Otherwise, the tragedy will be incommensurable,” he said.
At least 7 Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on people waiting for aid
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reports Palestinians gathered as commercial and aid trucks came through the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) border crossing in southern Gaza. Israel forces attacked the group at the Bani Suheila traffic circle in Khan Younis city.
“We are expecting the numbers of killed and injured to increase as paramedics are unable to get to the area because of heavy artillery fire,” he said.
Aid truck security guards among dead in Khan Younis attack
An Israeli air strike near Bani Suheila traffic circle in the southern Gaza Strip has now killed at least eight people, including guards who accompany aid trucks, Palestinian medics say.
1,400 tonnes of aid delivered via US-built pier this past weekend
US Central Command (CENTCOM) says the 1,384 tonnes of humanitarian relief sent includes its “largest single-day delivery of aid to date” on Sunday.
“Department of Defense operations have continued uninterrupted since re-anchoring the temporary pier to the beach in Gaza on June 19,” CENTCOM said, adding that operations will pause today for maintenance purposes.
US-built pier not sufficient in delivering aid to Gaza: WHO official
Hanan Balkhy, head of the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean region, made the remarks as the US military began delivering aid through the $230m floating pier again, after it was removed a second time because of rough seas.
“The pier has supported a little bit but it’s not to the scale that is needed by any stretch of the imagination,” Balkhy said. “So we need to emphasise on the land routes to ensure the amount and the quantity and the efficiency.”
Since Israel launched its ground operation into Rafah, aid deliveries have declined 67 percent, with more than 50 WHO trucks stuck on the Egyptian side of the crossing. Meanwhile, just three of its trucks have been allowed into Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, it said.
