US envoy visits Rafah crossing as aid in short supply in Gaza
US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz has visited the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing in southern Gaza with Israeli army officials.
Waltz claimed that since the ceasefire was reached between Israel and Hamas, more than 600 trucks have been bringing food, shelter and medicine into Gaza each day. Amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the UN and international aid agencies report that not enough food aid or emergency equipment is being allowed into the enclave by Israel.
Israel’s military again claimed on Wednesday that the UN is “manufacturing a false narrative” about the lack of essential medicine and other life-saving drugs that have either completely run out or are facing severe shortages.
Gaza officials reject US claim on humanitarian aid allowed by Israel
Gaza’s Government Media Office says no more than 234 trucks of aid per day have arrived in the enclave on average since the October 10 ceasefire deal, countering the claim by US envoy Mike Waltz that 600 trucks were coming in daily.
The US ambassador’s claim represents a “blatant attempt to exonerate the [Israeli] occupation from the crime of the blockade and starving the civilian population”, the office said in a statement.
Since the ceasefire, it said, only 14,534 of the 37,200 agreed-upon trucks have entered Gaza. The government office called this “adopting a systematic economic strangulation policy aimed at keeping the Gaza Strip on the brink of famine”.
Israel controls the nature of the goods allowed into the enclave, it said, adding that dozens of essentials, including basic food items, medical supplies and spare parts, are being blocked.
How much aid is Israel really letting into Gaza?
Israel continues to reject accusations that it is blocking assistance to Palestinians in Gaza despite myriad reports from the UN and leading aid groups, which say Israel is blocking trucks from bringing desperately needed supplies into the territory.
The Associated Press also reported this week that Gaza aid deliveries are falling “far short” of what was agreed to under the US-brokered ceasefire agreement that came into effect last month.
- The deal stipulates that 600 trucks of aid should enter Gaza each day. But AP said that Israel’s own figures show that an average of 459 trucks reached the enclave daily between October 12 and December 7.
- Israeli body COGAT said that roughly 18,000 trucks of food aid had entered Gaza from when the ceasefire took effect until Sunday, amounting to 70 percent of all aid that had entered the territory since the ceasefire.
- Israeli authorities estimated that a total of just over 25,700 trucks have entered Gaza over that same period, “well under the 33,600 trucks that should have gone in” under the ceasefire terms, AP said.
- The UN has said that only 6,545 trucks have been offloaded at Gaza crossings between the ceasefire and December 7, amounting to about 113 trucks a day. That figure does not include aid trucks sent by organisations not working through the UN network.
