Lately, the supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza has fallen sharply following the Israeli military offensive launched in the southern town of Rafah earlier this month, according to the United Nations.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that “the volume of food and other aid entering Gaza, already insufficient to meet growing needs, has declined further since May 7.” Indeed, between May 7 and last Tuesday, an average of 58 aid trucks reached Gaza each day, compared to an average of 176 trucks between April 1 and May 6, a drop of 67%.
Before hostilities between Israel and Hamas began in October, around 500 trucks a day passed through Gaza, according to figures from the UN, which has long urged that deliveries return to that level.
The reduction in humanitarian aid deliveries follows the Israeli assault on Rafah, aimed at destroying Hamas, believed to have regrouped in southern Gaza after the destruction of much of the north.
Since the Israeli takeover of the Gaza side of the Rafah border on May 7, aid has been blocked, with supplies piling up in Egypt and the Gaza Strip moving dangerously close to famine.
A senior Israeli security official recently warned that the war in Gaza could drag on into next year, appearing to dash the possibility that the Rafah campaign would end the offensive.
In a ruling last week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “disastrous” and ordered Israel to keep the Rafah border open for a “large-scale, uninterrupted supply” of aid. .
Israel and Egypt have blamed each other for the blockade. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called on Egypt to reopen the border; his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry accused Katz of “distorting the facts”, saying that the Israeli offensive near the border and the danger it poses to aid workers was the reason Egypt could not deliver the aid to Gaza.
Previously, Rafah was the central artery through which aid moved to Gaza, as well as, in November, for injured Palestinians and foreign nationals to enter Egypt.
With Rafah now at the heart of hostilities, aid continues to arrive in small quantities through two other crossing points: Kerem Shalom in the south and Erez in the north.
Kerem Shalom was reopened last week after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and US President Joe Biden agreed to send aid via the UN through the crossing on a temporary basis.
‘This will help save lives,’ Biden says, as efforts continue to reopen Rafah border.
More than 370 aid trucks arrived on the Egyptian side of the border on Monday, Israeli officials said. However, UNRWA, the lead UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said it had collected only 30 trucks for distribution on the Gaza side of the border.
While the Kerem Shalom crossing remains open in principle, it is extremely difficult for humanitarian organizations to access Gaza due to hostilities, OCHA stressed on Tuesday.
Some Israelis recently staged protests at the crossing, demanding that no aid enter Gaza until Hamas releases all the hostages.
In the north, some of the aid was able to enter through the Erez crossing point. From May 1 to 20, the World Food Program transferred 500 trucks carrying 7,000 metric tons of aid through this crossing point. However, only the western part of the crossing point is open, with the eastern part of Erez remaining closed.
Meanwhile, the temporary dock built by the United States to transport aid to Gaza, which cost $320 million and began operating on May 17, broke apart on Tuesday. It will be removed from the coast of Gaza and taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod for repairs, which will take more than a week.