UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : Gaza aid update OCHA

Gaza: Hundreds of trucks per day of free aid needed “for months”, in addition to commercial supplies - OCHA

Despite the tactical pauses Israel introduced last week to allow some safe passage for humanitarian convoys, the amount of aid that has entered Gaza remains by far insufficient for the starving population, and UN trucks continue to face impediments on their way to delivering aid.

The shortages are not limited to food: on Monday, the UN was able to collect about 200,000 litres of much-needed fuel from the Kerem Shalom crossing, but the limited quantities that have entered Gaza in the last week are far from enough, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)Water, sanitation and hygiene operations continue to be severely hampered by the lack of fuel. Only 29,000 liters have been received so far, while some 70,000 litres of fuel are needed every day for emergency operations.

“Everybody expects me to clap and say thank you,” said OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke, in an answer to a journalist’s question about the fuel that got into Gaza over the last week. But “the difference between the very small amount of aid that has now come in and the massive needs where people are literally dying on a daily basis, it's really out of proportion,” he insisted.

“The needs inside Gaza are such that there should be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and more hundreds of trucks, not only every day, not only every week, but for months, possibly years to come. This has been building up. We are now on the brink of famine -- as you know, that is not something that happens overnight,” Mr. Laerke explained.

According to the United Nations Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) a minimum of 600 trucks per day are needed to meet basic humanitarian needs for the more than 2 million people in the Gaza Strip.

Amid growing international pressure over the humanitarian crisis, Israel has announced it will allow controlled entry of commercial goods into Gaza. A limited number of Gaza-based traders will be entitled to import supplies into the Strip, for the first time since fighting resumed in March. Approved goods include basic food products, baby formula, fruits, vegetables, and hygiene items. Payments will have to be made exclusively via bank transfers and Palestinian merchants will undergo strict security screenings, according to Israeli authorities who will maintain the aid distribution centers run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which the UN has described as “inherently unsafe”.

“Aid alone cannot fix the problem”, Mr. Laerke pointed out, welcoming the announcement on commercial supplies. “There needs to be a commercial supply going in as well, bearing in mind commercial supplies cost money.” The great majority of Gaza’s population is unemployed.

“Aid is free of charge,” Mr. Laerke reminded reporters in Geneva, “and we have thousands of tons of aid, including food aid, standing just outside of Gaza, which has already been paid for by the donors. And donors expect that to be given free of charge to the people in need. And it's our job to do so, but we are not getting the facilitation that we need to do so.”

Aid entering Gaza only a fraction of what is needed, UNICEF

While some nutrition supplies have entered during the past week, including high-energy biscuits for pregnant and breastfeeding women as well as infant formula and hygiene kits, UNICEF emphasized that this is still a fraction of what is needed and that malnutrition among children in Gaza is reaching catastrophic levels. Severe malnutrition is spreading among children faster than aid can reach them, according to UNICEF, which reports a spike in the number of children who have starved to death.

The vast majority of severely malnourished children will eventually die from other causes, UNICEF warns: they are 10 times more likely to contract pneumonia, measles or other deadly diseases. Most of those deaths will not even be reported as the majority of malnourished children can’t even get to hospitals.

“It's very important that there is an increasing amount of pressure now from many governments because of the deprivations, because of the nutritional situation we see in children and in mothers and in women and in the elderly,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder “We mustn't forget as well, that on average, a girl or a boy has been killed in these bombardments every single hour since the horrors of October 7. So, the facts speak for themselves,” he said.

The war in the Gaza Strip has taken an unconscionable toll on children. According to UNICEF, more than 50,000 boys and girls have reportedly been killed or injured in Israel’s military operations since the Hamas massacre and hostage-taking in Israel on 7 October 2023.

-Ends-

Gaza aid update OCHA - UNICEF

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