Aid flows to Gaza have almost completely dried up in the past week, according to the United Nations, and humanitarian agencies have ordered a significant increase in food, medicine and other supplies to help the enclave cope with looming famine. argues that it is necessary. .
Since the start of the war, most aid to Gaza has entered through two border crossings on the southern edge of the territory. On May 5, Israel closed one of them, Kerem Shalom, after a nearby Hamas rocket attack killed four Israeli soldiers. The next day, Israeli forces captured and closed a second facility in Rafah, on the Egyptian border. A “limited operation” against Hamas will almost completely halt the flow of aid.
Six flour trucks arrived through the Kerem Shalom intersection on Saturday, and some fuel as well on Friday, said Juliet Touma, director of communications for UNRWA, the United Nations' main agency assisting Palestinians. He arrived through an intersection. She said no other supplies arrived via Kerem Shalom last week and the Rafah crossing remained closed.
“This is all I've been up to since May 6th,” Touma said in a text message. “Basically nothing.”
COGAT, the Israeli agency that coordinates aid to the Palestinians, said on Sunday that Israel was “working to enable the flow of aid to Rafah” through a road that runs along part of the enclave's length. No further details were provided.
With aid so limited, the cumulative food shortages built up over the past seven months are almost certain to worsen.
Before the war began last October, about 500 aid trucks and additional commercial trucks were transporting supplies to Gaza a day. However, the number of people entering the territory through the two main border crossings has fallen by about 75 percent since October 7, according to the United Nations. Some food has been delivered by air and sea, and more recently through the Erez border crossing in northern Gaza, but aid groups say it is not enough to make up for shortages at the main border crossing. .
At the same time, Touma said around 300,000 liters of fuel is needed per day for humanitarian purposes, including running generators in hospitals and relief efforts. Aid groups announced last week that there were only days of fuel left in stock.
Touma said only 157,000 liters of fuel entered Gaza on Friday. COGAT estimated this figure at 200,000 liters. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said: “At this desperate moment, there are severe fuel shortages, compounded by actions that block the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza through three international borders. That’s holding everything back.” Sunday statement.
The Israeli military said last Sunday's deadly rocket attack on Kerem Shalom by Hamas was fired from the Rafah area in southern Gaza. When Israeli forces took control of the Rafah border crossing last week, they called on people to evacuate from the east of the city. The military has since expanded the evacuation order.
Mr Turk said the latest evacuation order imposed on civilians in Rafah “can hardly be reconciled with the binding requirements of international humanitarian law”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced a full-scale invasion of Rafah, which President Biden and other world leaders have strongly warned, is necessary to defeat the remaining battalions of Hamas, the organization that led deadly attacks on Israel in October. argued that an invasion was necessary. . 7.
Two U.S. officials and a Western official said one reason for the overall stagnation in aid is that Egypt, where much of the aid to Gaza is collected and loaded, is unable to transport trucks from the Rafah crossing to Kerem Shalom. It is said that they are refusing to board the train. People participating in relief efforts and two Israeli officials familiar with the situation attended. American and Israeli officials have said they believe Egypt is trying to pressure Israel to withdraw its troops from Rafah.
After rocket sirens rang out again in the Kerem Shalom area on Sunday, the Israeli military said two launches from Rafah had been intercepted by air defenses.
