Just 145 aid trucks entered Gaza on Thursday, UN agency says
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Only 145 trucks of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies entered Gaza on Thursday through Egypt’s Rafah Crossing and Israel’s Kerem Shalom Crossing, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says in its daily update.
Israel agreed during a November truce to begin allowing at least 200 trucks of aid into Gaza, with the US pushing for the number to approach the 500 trucks per day that entered the Strip before the war. Jerusalem says the UN and Egypt are causing massive bottlenecks in aid delivery, and that it is inspecting hundreds of trucks per day.
But aid agencies on the ground retort that delivering assistance throughout the Strip is nearly impossible as Israel’s military operations persist throughout Gaza.
“Between January 1 and 11, only 21 percent (5 out of 24) of planned aid deliveries of food, medicines, water, and other lifesaving supplies to the north of Wadi Gaza proceeded,” OCHA says amid growing concerns of food insecurity, particularly in northern Gaza where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain.
“Repeated denials of fuel delivery to water and sanitation facilities, have deprived people of access to clean water, escalating the risk of sewage overflows and rapidly intensifying the spread of communicable diseases,” OCHA says.
