Israel’s tactical pause on Gaza attacks and partial lifting of humanitarian aid blockades there is unlikely to end acute suffering faced by 2.3 million Palestinian residents.
As these pauses are expected to last a week or so, the United Nations and aid agencies are under pressure to flood Gaza with food, bottled water, medicine and fuel needed to sustain the population before Israel resumes its full-scale offensive and blockade.
To carry out such a mission, aid agencies need the co-operation of Israel, which inspects all lorry loads entering Gaza and determines when and where they are allowed to make deliveries.
Last weekend, Israel permitted pallets of aid to be parachuted into Gaza by Jordan and Britain, but this only amounted to a tiny amount of what is needed . Although 120 trucks carrying aid were allowed into Gaza on Sunday and 180 on Monday, 500-600 lorry loads a day are needed. It is vital that more aid is allowed through to make up for the extreme deficit of supplies.
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Starvation is rife in Gaza following Israel’s ban on aid agencies entering the region. Minimal food aid has been provided since May 27th by the controversial US-Israeli sponsored Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
According to UN estimates, Israeli troops have killed 1,000 Palestinians and wounded thousands while they tried to access three GHF distribution sites. UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, operated 400 aid sites throughout Gaza before Israel’s blockade.
Starvation is so widespread and so severe that a significant increase of special food to treat acute malnutrition is urgently needed. Starving people cannot absorb normal meals.
World Food Programme emergency director Ross Smith has warned that a quarter of Gaza’s population is faced with famine-like conditions and nearly 100,000 women and children require urgent treatment for severe malnutrition. He said: “People are dying from lack of humanitarian assistance every day and we are seeing this escalate day by day.”
To escape long-term malnutrition, Gazans need fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and chicken which are not currently supplied. Aid parcels include sugar, salt, flour, tea, oil, lentils, fava beans and rice. Most of Gaza’s people have been repeatedly displaced. Almost all families in the region live in tents and do not have the means to cook rice. There is no wood in Gaza, forcing people to burn rubbish and plastic, which can worsen health issues.
Breaking the Silence, an Israeli non-governmental organisation established by former members of the Israeli Defence Force veterans, said that the new arrangements are “the latest manifestation of a twisted logic that leverages food as a means of control, not one with an actual intent to disperse aid”.
