Before October 7, 2023, over 80% of Gaza’s population relied on humanitarian aid. Now, a year into the deadly conflict, with over half a million facing “catastrophic” food insecurity, a 170% increase in malnutrition, a collapsing health system and over one million Palestinians in need of shelter kits before winter, getting aid in has never been more crucial, or challenging.
It is almost impossible to get aid inside Gaza since the seizure by Israel and subsequent burning of the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border in May 2024, according to a spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
“This was where the majority of aid came in and the only way for Palestinians to leave the Gaza strip,” Tomasso Della Longa told ‘Emergency Services Ireland’. He described a “nightmare” situation where the local people’s needs continue to grow heavily, day after day, but not the number of trucks with the necessary level of humanitarian aid.
“Food, water, medicine and everything needed to run a hospital, and medical post are now a matter of priority, together with fuel supplies,” Della Longa explained. “Without fuel, you don’t have hospitals, ambulances, refrigerators. You don’t have anything, because there is no electricity.”
As people in the north of Gaza face starvation, thousands of aid trucks have been unable to cross into the enclave. Some of the food is spoiled by the time it reaches the Palestinians, who have been warned to check what they receive is safe to eat, as the threat of famine looms.
Israel has been accused by UN officials of blocking aid, with EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell having claimed that it was “provoking famine” using starvation as a weapon of war. The US Government’s development and refugee agencies both found Israel was deliberately blocking food and medicine deliveries in April.
After Israel’s High Court of Justice ordered the state to demonstrate it was meeting its legal obligations to provide enough humanitarian supplies to Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced “tactical pauses” in military operations near its Karem Shalom crossing. However, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) Director Cindy McCain said this “made no difference at all”.
“A tactical pause is not a ceasefire. This remains a hot war zone. No place is really safe in which to operate,” Jonathan Fowler, Senior Communications Manager with the UN Relief Works Agency’s (UNRWA), told ‘Emergency Services Ireland’. “
Meanwhile, Israel’s Co-ordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has boasted of the aid it allows into Gaza, reporting that 3,981 trucks entered in September, of which 1,533 were carrying aid, according to its data. However, before the conflict started on 7 October 2023, an average of 200 aid trucks entered Gaza daily, along with 300 trucks containing imports like food and industrial materials. Aid agencies and UN officials say 500 to 600 trucks a day are needed to meet Gazans’ minimum needs.
