Aid groups accuse IDF of preventing aid from reaching Gaza

PARIS, France — Access to war-torn Gaza has become increasingly difficult for humanitarian groups, 13 leading NGOs warn, accusing Israel’s military of blocking much-needed aid from reaching the besieged Palestinian territory.

Denouncing “Israel’s systematic obstruction of aid and its ongoing attacks on aid operations,” the humanitarian organizations say that Israel had facilitated only 53 — less than half — of the 115 relief missions they had planned.

The aid groups slam what it called Israel’s “siege tactics” in its struggle against Palestinian terror group Hamas.

It says the so-called “humanitarian zone” where most of the strip’s population of 2.4 million people now reside had become “an active combat zone” and “extremely unsafe.”

The charities also criticize the bombing of United Nations schools used as shelters by displaced Palestinians.

At least six schools have been hit over the past nine days.

Israel has provided evidence that Hamas and other terror groups use schools, including those run by the UN, to store weapons and stage attacks against Israel.

“These recent events are exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe at a time when NGOs continue to come up against the obstacles imposed by the continuation of Israeli military operations on the ground,” a press release summarizing the 13 NGOs’ views warns.

Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council are among the charities to contribute to the document.

Since Israel began its ground offensive in the far-southern city of Rafah in May, humanitarian workers have faced major difficulties in delivering aid to the Gaza Strip’s south.

Israel’s capture at the beginning of May of the Rafah crossing brought aid deliveries to a “complete halt,” the NGOs added, without mentioning that it is Egypt that has refused to send trucks through the crossing while it remains under Israeli control.

Tons of “absolutely necessary aid” were left blocked at the crossing points in the south “due to the deterioration in security conditions,” the statement says.

More than 1,500 trucks of humanitarian aid containing medicines, first-aid kits, and basic necessities are stuck in the Egyptian city of Al-Arish as a result.

Meanwhile, in the north of the Gaza Strip — which has been isolated from the south by the Israeli army — aid delivery is “very limited.”

Oxfam says it took it five weeks to transport just 1,600 food parcels from Jordan to Gaza — a journey it said “should take no more than six hours.”

At Kerem Shalom, designated since May as a priority crossing point for humanitarian aid, the situation had “deteriorated significantly since Israel’s offensive in May,” the aid groups say.

This had made the crossing “unsafe to access from within Gaza and currently not logistically viable.”

Israel has repeatedly said there are no restrictions to the amount of aid that can enter Gaza and accuses the United Nations and other aid groups of failing to distribute aid deliveries.

“Yesterday, 211 trucks entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom,” Israeli government spokesman David Mencer says.

In addition, “eight trucks were collected on the Gaza side” of the Erez along with “103 from the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom,” he adds.