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Aid to Gaza remains near all-time lows a month after the United States announced it would not halt arms transfers to Israel because it had seen “some progress” in enabling humanitarian aid to reach the devastated Strip.
Washington said at the time that it expected Israel to improve conditions for Palestinians in the besieged Strip. But humanitarian officials say conditions have worsened, with looting nearly choking off supplies from the main aid arrival point, and Israeli forces killing Palestinians guarding convoys against theft.
About 1,700 trucks entered the Strip in the month ending December 12, according to UN data, just over 100 trucks compared to the previous month, when aid shipments reached their lowest level since the start of the Israeli war with Hamas.
“We have reached the point where we are lucky if we can get a semi-truck in,” said Louise Waterridge, UNRWA's senior emergency officer in Gaza. “People can't have a day where they just know: My family is going to eat.”
Central and southern Gaza, where most of the population now lives, faces increasing hunger. Desperate Palestinians overran bakeries, some even being crushed to death. Three people suffered from suffocation in an accident that occurred on November 29 while they were standing in a food queue in the central Gaza Strip.
Flour is so scarce that a bag costs $162, according to a joint report by more than a dozen aid organizations, including Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee, published on December 13.
On October 13, the US secretaries of state and defense wrote to the Israeli government, which controls all crossings into Gaza, giving it 30 days to “increase all forms of humanitarian assistance” in the Strip and “immediately end the isolation of northern Gaza.” He warned that military aid could be at risk if conditions did not improve.
A month later, the United States said it would not withhold military aid, saying it had observed “some progress”, despite warnings from aid groups that conditions were deteriorating.
Aid workers said most of the few food items that enter the Strip are stolen because Israel only allows aid trucks to travel on roads where organized gangs are rampant.
Meanwhile, Israel regularly prevents or delays the arrival of humanitarian missions into Gaza, while rejecting or obstructing all UN attempts to deliver aid to the besieged north between November 13 and December 10, according to the report.
The United States pointed to Israel's opening of the Kissufim crossing into central Gaza as a sign of improvement, but only 67 trucks entered from there last month. Looting also hampered deliveries there.
“It is not enough for Israel to drop aid on the border and open one gate. “They need to open all land routes at once and ensure protection for the unrestricted aid response inside Gaza as well,” said Bushra Al-Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy officer.
UNRWA stopped aid transfers from the Kerem Shalom crossing, the main entry point for humanitarian aid into the south and central Gaza Strip, on 1 December after looting made work impossible. The World Food Program had already stopped transportation operations from the crossing.
A senior UN official told the Financial Times that subsequent US pressure may have prompted Israel to allow the organizations to take an alternative route into Gaza from Kerem Shalom.
Over the course of two days, aid convoys on the alternative route reached their destinations with almost unprecedented success, said four senior humanitarian officials and a Palestinian source familiar with transportation.
They said that a convoy of more than 100 trucks reached its destination without any of them being looted on Wednesday evening after community members lined the streets to protect aid from thieves.
But the next day, just before the third convoy set off, Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians who were planning to provide protection for the trucks, four humanitarian officials and two Palestinian officials familiar with transportation matters said.
At least 20 people were killed, according to two aid workers. Only one truck out of more than 70 trucks in the convoy made it, while the rest were looted.
In response to questions about the incident, the Israeli army said it carried out raids on Hamas activists who intended to steal aid trucks.
The statement read: “The IDF continues to act meticulously against the Hamas terrorist organization and takes all measures to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians, and. . . We will continue to work in accordance with international law to enable and facilitate the transfer of humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip.”
The Israeli military body responsible for humanitarian affairs in Gaza, known as Cogat, did not respond to questions about humanitarian aid and looting.
Israel launched its attack on Gaza in response to a Hamas attack on October 7, during which the militants killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials, and took 250 hostage. Nearly 45,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli campaign, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
“Even our own staff depend on humanitarian aid,” Al-Khalidi said of Oxfam workers. . . My brother-in-law tells the children not to play or run so they don't get dizzy because they only eat one meal a day.
Data visualization by Aditi Bhandari
