Palestinians in Gaza were still waiting for aid to arrive, UN officials said yesterday, two days after the Israeli government said it had lifted an 11-week-old blockade that has brought the Palestinian enclave to the brink of famine.
The Israeli military said five aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday and 93 on Tuesday but even those minimal supplies have not made it to Gaza’s soup kitchens, bakeries, markets and hospitals, according to aid officials and local bakeries that were standing by to receive supplies of flour.
Israel yesterday said it had allowed 100 aid trucks carrying flour, baby food and medical equipment into the Gaza Strip.
“None of this aid – that is a very limited number of trucks – has reached the Gaza population,” said Antoine Renard, country director of the World Food Programme (WFP).
A United Nations spokesperson said trucks were still in the loading area of Kerem Shalom, the sprawling logistics hub at the southeastern corner of the Gaza Strip, because access to the rest of Gaza was too insecure to allow safe distribution.
However, two merchants familiar with the matter told Reuters late last night that at least 15 aid trucks left the Kerem Shalom crossing en route to World Food Programme warehouses in central Gaza.
The Israeli blockade has left Gazans in an increasingly desperate struggle for survival, despite growing international and domestic pressure on Israel’s government, which one opposition figure said risked turning the country into a ‘pariah state’.
“There is no flour, no food, no water,” said Sabah Warsh Agha, a 67-year-old woman from the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya sheltering in a cluster of tents near to the beach in Gaza City. “We used to get water from the pump, now the pump has stopped working. There is no diesel or gas.”
Thousands of tonnes of food and other vital supplies are waiting near crossing points into Gaza but until it can be safely distributed, around a quarter of the population remains at risk of famine, Renard said.
“I’m here since eight in the morning, just to get one plate for six people while it is not enough for one person,” said Mahmoud Al Haw, who waits in panicked crowds for up to six hours a day hoping for some lentil soup to keep his children alive.
As people waited, air strikes and tank fire killed at least 50 people across the Gaza Strip yesterday.
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