Only 12 trucks have delivered food, water to Gaza since October, says aid group
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A Palestinian girl carrying water she collected from one of the very few aid convoys that managed to reach Gaza.
PHOTO: REUTERS
NEW YORK – Just 12 trucks distributed food and water in northern Gaza in 2½ months, aid group Oxfam said on Dec 22, raising the alarm over the worsening humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.
“Of the meager 34 trucks of food and water given permission to enter the North Gaza Governorate over the last 2½ months, deliberate delays and systematic obstructions by the Israeli military meant that just 12 managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian civilians,” Oxfam said in a statement, in a count that included deliveries up to the end of Dec 21.
“For three of these, once the food and water had been delivered to the school where people were sheltering, it was then cleared and shelled within hours,” Oxfam added.
Israel, which has tightly controlled aid entering the Hamas-ruled territory since the outbreak of the war, often blames what it says is the inability of relief organisations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid.
In a report focused on water, New York-based Human Rights Watch on Dec 19 detailed what it called deliberate efforts by the Israeli authorities “of a systematic nature” to deprive Gazans of water, which “likely caused thousands of deaths... and will likely continue to cause deaths”.
They were the latest in a series of accusations levelled against Israel during its 14-month war against Palestinian Hamas militants.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel that claimed the lives of 1,208 Israelis, mostly civilians.
‘Access blocked’
Since then, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians.
Oxfam said it and other international aid groups have been “continually prevented from delivering life-saving aid” in northern Gaza since Oct 6, when Israel intensified its bombardment of the territory.
“Thousands of people are estimated to still be cut off, but with humanitarian access blocked it’s impossible to know exact numbers,” Oxfam said.
“At the beginning of December, humanitarian organisations operating in Gaza were receiving calls from vulnerable people trapped in homes and shelters that had completely run out of food and water,” it said.
Human Rights Watch says Israel has been depriving Gazans of water, likely causing “thousands of deaths”.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Oxfam highlighted one instance of an aid delivery in November being disrupted by the Israeli authorities.
“A convoy of 11 trucks... was initially held up at the holding point by the Israeli military at Jabalia, where some food was taken by starving civilians,” it said.
“After the green light to proceed to the destination was received, the trucks were then stopped further on at a military checkpoint. Soldiers forced the drivers to offload the aid in a militarised zone, which desperate civilians had no access to.”
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Dec 19 asking the International Court of Justice to assess Israel’s obligations to assist Palestinians. AFP
