Israel is accused of stopping 83% of food aid to Gaza.

Israel is accused of stopping 83% of food aid to Gaza.

Palestinian children collect food in a tent in the Deir al-Balah camp. Photo: Abdel Karim Hanna/AP/NTB

Israel systematically blocks life-saving aid to Gaza residents every day, according to a review backed by 15 aid organizations.

In August, an average of 69 trucks of emergency aid reached Gaza every day, a record low. Meanwhile, more than a million people were forced to go without food rations entirely in the southern and central parts of the Palestinian territory, according to a UN report. Data which was published on Monday.

By comparison, there were an average of 500 trucks each weekday during the same period last year.

Israel has previously rejected accusations that the state is blocking emergency aid to Gaza, and among other things, blamed the distribution.

There is a shortage of food, medicine, tents and diapers.

The overview shows, among other things, that 83 per cent of all food deliveries have been halted, even though an estimated 50,000 children under five will be in urgent need of treatment for malnutrition by the end of the year.

A Palestinian woman waits outside a distribution center of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Photo: Khalil Hamra/AP/NTB
A Palestinian woman waits outside a distribution center of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Photo: Khalil Hamra/AP/NTB

It was also found that there was a 65 percent shortage of the insulin needed by the population, as well as about half the amount of blood needed for blood transfusions.

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There is also a huge shortage of tents, with only 25,000 people receiving tents, while 1.87 million people need a roof over their heads because they have been displaced from their homes.

Thousands of people also have to manage without hygiene supplies, especially women.

It will affect the UN meeting.

In relation to the report, aid organizations – including the Norwegian Refugee Council and the Church Emergency Relief Society – are calling for an end to the Israeli blockade in a situation where the entire population is at risk of starvation and disease.

The request is being made ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York, where the groups hope world leaders will demand that Israel allow in sufficient emergency aid.

They also call for an end to the export of weapons and military equipment that Israel could use to violate international humanitarian law and international human rights.

People gather around trucks that come to help in May. Photo: Abdel Karim Hanna/AP 7 NTB
People gather around trucks that come to help in May. Photo: Abdel Karim Hanna/AP 7 NTB

– There is a shortage of all humanitarian products. We are overwhelmed with these needs and all the urgency to get them, and people are starving because of the lack of aid. 100% of the population depends on humanitarian aid. Amjad Shawa, who heads an umbrella organization of 39 Palestinian relief organizations, says that this is the worst situation we have seen during the Israeli war on Gaza.

-It's getting worse.

The situation was unsustainable before October 7 last year, and has long been catastrophic, says Julian Veldujk, Country Director of the Care Division in the West Bank and Gaza.

“After more than eleven months, we have reached a horrific level of conflict, displacement, disease and hunger. But help has not yet arrived, and aid workers are risking their lives to do their work while attacks and violations of international law continue to escalate,” she said.

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Feldjovic stresses that emergency aid, which people need to survive, should never be politicized.

“We demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the free flow of humanitarian aid into and through Gaza,” she said in a press statement on Monday.

Aid organizations point to six ways in which Israeli authorities are blocking vital aid. This is because Israel fails to create safe conditions for aid workers, trucks carrying emergency aid are blocked from entering, there is widespread and unpredictable control over all goods entering Gaza, and the destruction of public infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals, aid organizations say.

By Bond Robertson

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