Delivering aid to Gaza ‘has become almost impossible’, UN relief chief says
Tom Fletcher, who heads the UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA), has urged governments to “break the cycle of violence” and “defend humanitarian law” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The UN official made the comments after visiting Jordan, Syria and Lebanon to meet aid teams, including those working in the occupied Palestinian territory. He condemned the “sustained intensity” of Israel’s violence in Gaza, saying that there is nowhere safe for civilians in the Strip, with schools, hospitals and civilian infrastructure reduced to rubble.
“We deal with tough places to deliver humanitarian support. But Gaza is currently the most dangerous, in a year when more humanitarians have been killed than any on record,” Fletcher said.
“As a result, despite the massive humanitarian needs, it has become almost impossible to deliver even a fraction of the aid that is so urgently required. The Israeli authorities continue to deny us meaningful access – over 100 requests to access North Gaza were denied since 6 October. We are also now seeing the breakdown of law and order and the systematic armed looting of our supplies by local gangs.”
The statement came amid reports of a deadly Israeli attack on an aid convoy in Gaza on Monday as well as the looting of a WFP convoy on Sunday.
Medical aid among supplies looted in Gaza
The International Medical Corps says medical supplies that were meant for field hospitals in Gaza were among the aid that was taken.
“Of the 150 pallets that International Medical Corps was transporting in the convoy, 111 were looted, while 39 made it to the destination undisturbed,” it said in a statement.
Israel deliberately attacks security guarding humanitarian, commercial trucks across Gaza
There are deliberate attacks across Gaza when it comes to the delivery of humanitarian trucks, commercial trucks to a designated point.
The Israeli military targets every mission to deliver aid in a way consistent with our reports over the past few months, where looting started to take place and the looters are heavily protected by the Israeli military.
Drones are hovering at a very low level in these areas of Salah al-Din Street, where trucks are taking the route to deliver aid.
Looters gather around these trucks, try to hijack them, take them elsewhere and as soon as the guards intervene to prevent this from happening, the drone fires its missiles, killing the security guards who are protecting and securing trucks.
Close to 30 of these security guards have been killed in the past months and it’s causing disruption in the delivery of aid mechanism that has already been broken since the beginning of this genocidal war.
Israel provides full support for theft of aid in Gaza: Media Office
The Gaza Government Media Office says in a statement on Telegram that Israel provides full support for the theft of aid and kills security personnel to starve civilians.
Israel has killed 723 policemen and aid security personnel since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza on October 7 last year, according to the latest statistics published by the office.
The army often targets policemen guarding aid shipments, followed by attacks by protected armed gangs, and steals humanitarian aid as part of the starvation war imposed by Israel as collective punishment on the residents of Gaza.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation,” it said. The statement added: “We call on the international community, the United Nations, and human rights and humanitarian organisations to intervene urgently and pressure the Israeli occupation to ensure the flow of aid without any obstacles.”
