Due to overcrowding, rubble and fuel shortages… aid distribution in Gaza is a complex process
According to a report prepared by Reuters, the process of distributing food and medical supplies in Gaza is facing obstacles due to severe fuel shortages, looting of shops, rubble-strewn streets left by Israeli shelling and overcrowding resulting from the displacement of civilians.
Humanitarian officials say that despite the slight increase in supplies, the number of humanitarian trucks entering Gaza – an average of 14 trucks a day – is still small compared to the 400 trucks that normally entered each day for the 2.3 million people of the Strip who now need supplies. As essential as bread.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said today: “The level of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza to date is wholly insufficient and does not match the needs of the people of Gaza, leading to an exacerbation of the humanitarian tragedy.”
For its part, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) announced yesterday (Monday) that it had delivered hundreds of tonnes of flour to 50 bakeries in Gaza the day before, which contributed to reduce the price of bread by half, and to shelters that host hundreds of thousands of people.
But the agency, which runs the largest aid operation in Gaza, said the storming of its second largest warehouse by starving Gazans on Sunday was likely to further complicate its work.
The UNRWA logistics base at the Rafah border crossing is facing difficulties in carrying out its tasks due to the eight thousand displaced people taking refuge there. The grassroots is vital for aid distribution.
The agency added that 67 of its employees in Gaza have been killed since October 7, the highest number of UN employees killed in any conflict in such a short period.
UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma explained that the agency’s priority is to provide aid to 150 shelters hosting at least 670,000 displaced people, while the other priority is to provide wheat flour to bakeries.
He said doing anything more is “well beyond our capabilities.”
He added that the number of displaced people is four times greater than what UNRWA had predicted before the war as a worst-case scenario.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said its warehouses in Gaza city suffered “serious damage” yesterday (Monday) and were out of service.
Israel imposes a siege on the Gaza Strip and refuses to allow fuel in, saying Hamas could use it to achieve military objectives.
“The constant threat posed by shelling, rubble and fuel shortages makes roads extremely dangerous and impassable in many areas of the Gaza Strip,” said Jonathan Krekes, media director for the United Nations Children’s Fund ( UNICEF) in Palestine. He added that although UNICEF has brought medical supplies to the Strip, “distribution has become more difficult.”
Wastewater is ‘horrible’
Aid flows into Gaza have dropped dramatically since Israel began shelling the Palestinian enclave in response to the Hamas attack on October 7.
The death toll from Israeli bombing has angered the world. Medical authorities in the Gaza Strip said today (Tuesday) that 8,525 people, including 3,542 children, had been killed. Relief officials say distribution is difficult particularly in northern Gaza, which is the hub of Israel’s military operation, and some parties have stopped all deliveries.
World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier said today that the organization has not sent further aid to hospitals in northern Gaza since October 24 due to the absence of safety guarantees. He added that there is an imminent public health catastrophe due to mass displacement and damage to water and sanitation infrastructure.
He added that health facilities in Gaza have been subjected to 82 attacks since the conflict began on October 7, and 491 people have been killed in the attacks, including 16 on-duty health workers, and 28 ambulances have been damaged or destroyed.
Rick Brennan, director of the Emergency Program at the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, told Reuters that conditions were dire with the displacement of 1.4 million people in such a densely populated region. He added: “The sanitary conditions are terrible; I mean, I was just talking to a colleague from UNRWA, and she said that the living conditions are subhuman. Where do people go to the bathroom? How to eliminate all this waste?
He added that such conditions create the conditions for the spread of diseases such as diarrhea and respiratory and skin infections such as scabies.
In Cairo, U.S. special envoy David Satterfield, who is negotiating aid delivery with Israel and Egypt, said providing humanitarian aid was crucial for Gaza, whose residents say they are running out of food and water.
He told a news conference: “This is a society on the brink and desperate… and the United Nations must demonstrate that aid is not random.”
The flow of aid from Egypt has slowed due to the inspection system agreed with Israel, under which trucks depart from the Rafah crossing along the Egyptian-Israeli border before returning to Gaza. Juliette Touma described the system as “extremely cumbersome”.