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‘Humanitarian blackmail’: Gaza aid deliveries fall far short of promised numbers
A total of 986 aid trucks have entered the coastal enclave since the ceasefire began on October 10, out of the 6,600 trucks that were supposed to arrive by Monday evening, Gaza’s Government Media Office has said.
“We note that the average number of trucks entering the Gaza Strip daily since the ceasefire began does not exceed 89 trucks out of 600 trucks that are supposed to enter,” it said, noting that it reflected “the continued policy of strangulation, starvation and humanitarian blackmail practised by the [Israeli] occupation”.
“We emphasise that these limited quantities do not cover the minimum humanitarian and living needs, and that the Gaza Strip is in dire need of an urgent and regular flow of no less than [600] aid trucks daily, including food, medical and relief supplies, operating fuel and cooking gas, to ensure the minimum requirements for a decent life.”
Under the ceasefire deal, Israel was to allow aid to enter Gaza.
Food flows into Gaza still far below targets: WFP
A World Food Programme spokesperson says that supplies into Gaza were ramping up but were still far short of its daily target of 2,000 tonnes because only two crossings into the enclave are open.
“To be able to get to this scale-up, we have to use every border crossing point right now,” WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa said at a media briefing in Geneva.
She added that only two crossings were operational – Karem Abu Salem (known as Kerem Shalom in Israel) and Kissufim – but that none were open into the famine-hit north. The Rafah crossing in the south also remains shut.
Northern Gaza desperate for aid as supplies trickle in
In the north of Gaza, we’re not seeing aid trucks coming in. The Zikim crossing in the north has been blocked for 50 days now, with no entry of any trucks.
The only trucks we’ve been seeing since the beginning of the ceasefire are the commercial trucks, belonging to business owners and traders who were given permission by the Israeli military to enter central and southern Gaza. They send the shipments to northern Gaza where they end up being sold at a very high price, beyond the financial reach of people.
Besides this, there is no infrastructure – no warehouses, no roads for these trucks to drive on. Much of the city has been reduced to rubble, and the streets are difficult to navigate.
For over two years now, we’ve been talking about aid, and nothing has changed. There’s been a trickle that’s been allowed in by Israel only to try to evade global criticism. But when you look, the amount is nowhere near sufficient to address the humanitarian crisis across the Gaza Strip.
