2023/10/27
By Simon Lewis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Overly stringent checks on trucks at the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza were slowing the flow of humanitarian aid to a "dribble" as hunger grows among Palestinians there, U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Cindy McCain told Reuters on Thursday.
The Rafah crossing, which is controlled by Egypt and does not border Israel, has become the main point of aid delivery since Israel imposed a "total siege" of Gaza in retaliation for an attack by Hamas militants from the coastal strip on Oct. 7.
The United States is leading negotiations with Israel, Egypt and the U.N. to try to create a sustained delivery mechanism for aid to Gaza. They are wrangling over procedures for inspecting aid and bombardments on the Gaza side of the border.
"We’ve gotten a few – a dribble, just a dribble – of trucks in," McCain said in an interview. "We need to get a large amount in. We need safe, unfettered access into Gaza so that we can feed and make sure that people don’t starve to death, because that’s what’s happening."
While there have been some limited deliveries of food, water and medicine since Saturday, no fuel has been allowed in. Israel is concerned about the possible diversion of fuel deliveries by Hamas.
Three WFP trucks carrying about 60 tons of food - enough to feed 200,000 people for a day - entered Gaza on Saturday. One additional WFP truck has crossed since then, according to the agency.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Thursday it had received 74 aid trucks.
The daily average of trucks allowed into Gaza prior to the hostilities was about 500, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday.
The U.N. agency providing aid to Palestinian civilians, UNRWA, has almost exhausted its fuel reserves and has begun significantly reducing its operations, he said.
McCain, who visited Egypt and met with officials, said each truck has to offload its cargo at a checkpoint for inspection, then reload it when the check is complete.
"The bureaucracy is insane," McCain said, adding that while she understood checks were needed to ensure arms and ammunition were not being smuggled, it should be easier to get food in.
The government of Egypt did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
U.S. officials, including Special Envoy David Satterfield, who is in the region, are working to improve the process, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Thursday.
"We need to speed up the inspection regime, and we're working to do that," Miller said.
WFP needs to raise $100 million to feed over a million people in Gaza to the end of this year, McCain said, amid a wider crisis in funding humanitarian aid caused by multiple emergencies around the world, rising food prices due to Russia's war in Ukraine and what McCain called "donor fatigue."
In Washington to meet with U.S. officials and lawmakers, McCain said she has heard concerns that aid could be diverted by Hamas militants, but said WFP has systems in place to make sure aid gets to those who need it.
"It's a war zone. Things are going to happen. And so I can't say 100% that nothing's going to wind up in the hands of the bad guys. But we will do everything in our power to make sure it doesn't," she said.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis; additional reporting by Aidan Lewis and Michelle Nichols; editing by Grant McCool and Jonathan Oatis)
© Reuters
UN expects eight aid trucks in Gaza on Friday as supplies dwindle
WHO: Gaza conditions catastrophic, regardless of death toll accuracy
2023/10/27
A REGULAR DAY WOULD SEE 104 TRUCKS ENTER GAZA
2023/10/27
Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip arrive from the Egyptian side to the Palestinian side at the Rafah border crossing. A fourth convoy of 20 aid trucks passed through the Rafah crossing from Egypt to the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Wednesday, an aid official said.
Mohammed Talatene/dpa
Eight more lorries carrying drinking water, food and medical supplies for hospitals are due to arrive in the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to the United Nations.
The supplies are nowhere near enough to alleviate the plight of about 2.3 million people in Gaza, said Lynn Hastings, the UN coordinator for humanitarian aid in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territories, on Friday from Jerusalem.
She said that, before the start of the war in Gaza, about 450 lorries with aid entered Gaza every day. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) had previously said 500 lorries a day.
Among the current hurdles to supplying Gaza is Israel's insistence on extensive inspections of every lorry to ensure that only humanitarian aid is actually on board, which requires each truck to be fully unloaded so that the pallets can each be inspected.
Hastings said that dozens of lorries are waiting to enter the strip, and additional aid supplies had arrived in the region but not yet been loaded onto lorries.
Fuel supplies in Gaza are also running low, Hastings said, although UNRWA has about 1 million litres of petrol in a storage facility near the Rafah border crossing to Egypt. Hastings said the fuel was supplied by Israel before the October 7 attacks and was paid for by Qatar.
UNRWA has managed to retrieve about 200,000 litres from the depot in recent days, but Israeli strikes on Gaza often interrupt or cancel trips to retrieve fuel.
Hastings said that UNRWA typically used 130,000 litres of fuel a day for activities including supporting the desalination of drinking water and the operation of hospitals, schools and bakeries.
© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
Eight more lorries carrying drinking water, food and medical supplies for hospitals are due to arrive in the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to the United Nations.
The supplies are nowhere near enough to alleviate the plight of about 2.3 million people in Gaza, said Lynn Hastings, the UN coordinator for humanitarian aid in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territories, on Friday from Jerusalem.
She said that, before the start of the war in Gaza, about 450 lorries with aid entered Gaza every day. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) had previously said 500 lorries a day.
Among the current hurdles to supplying Gaza is Israel's insistence on extensive inspections of every lorry to ensure that only humanitarian aid is actually on board, which requires each truck to be fully unloaded so that the pallets can each be inspected.
Hastings said that dozens of lorries are waiting to enter the strip, and additional aid supplies had arrived in the region but not yet been loaded onto lorries.
Fuel supplies in Gaza are also running low, Hastings said, although UNRWA has about 1 million litres of petrol in a storage facility near the Rafah border crossing to Egypt. Hastings said the fuel was supplied by Israel before the October 7 attacks and was paid for by Qatar.
UNRWA has managed to retrieve about 200,000 litres from the depot in recent days, but Israeli strikes on Gaza often interrupt or cancel trips to retrieve fuel.
Hastings said that UNRWA typically used 130,000 litres of fuel a day for activities including supporting the desalination of drinking water and the operation of hospitals, schools and bakeries.
© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
Palestinian emergency personnel rescue the victims trapped under the rubble of a destroyed house, following an Israeli air strike on Rafah. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
Palestinian emergency personnel rescue the survivors and remove the bodies of those who were trapped under the rubble of a destroyed house, following an Israeli air strike on Rafah. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
WHO: Gaza conditions catastrophic, regardless of death toll accuracy
2023/10/27
Palestinian women bake traditional saj bread over a wood fire and paper, in a shelter for families displaced from the Northern Gaza Strip, to a United Nations-run school in Rafah. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
The World Health Organization (WHO) has criticized the debate over the accuracy of casualty figures provided by the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip.
On the one hand, the WHO has had no reason to doubt the figures provided by the Gaza health authorities for years, Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian Territories, said from Jerusalem on Friday.
In another sense, however, Peeperkorn said that it makes no difference whether there are a thousand more or a thousand fewer victims. Either way, he said, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic and the number of people killed by Israeli attacks is enormous.
Peeperkorn said that 23 of the 35 hospitals in Gaza remain at least partially open, although doctors at some hospitals now must operate on the floor. But he said the situation is deteriorating amid Israeli's near-total blockade of the strip and repeated airstrikes.
About 94,000 litres of fuel are needed every day just to run generators at just the 12 most important hospitals in Gaza in order to provide minimal care for life-threatening illnesses and injuries, Peeperkorn said.
Two-thirds of the 72 smaller health clinics have been closed, he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has criticized the debate over the accuracy of casualty figures provided by the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip.
On the one hand, the WHO has had no reason to doubt the figures provided by the Gaza health authorities for years, Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian Territories, said from Jerusalem on Friday.
In another sense, however, Peeperkorn said that it makes no difference whether there are a thousand more or a thousand fewer victims. Either way, he said, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic and the number of people killed by Israeli attacks is enormous.
Peeperkorn said that 23 of the 35 hospitals in Gaza remain at least partially open, although doctors at some hospitals now must operate on the floor. But he said the situation is deteriorating amid Israeli's near-total blockade of the strip and repeated airstrikes.
About 94,000 litres of fuel are needed every day just to run generators at just the 12 most important hospitals in Gaza in order to provide minimal care for life-threatening illnesses and injuries, Peeperkorn said.
Two-thirds of the 72 smaller health clinics have been closed, he said.
A young Palestinian boy walks through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli air strikes targeted Khan Yunis at dawn. Mohammed Talatene/dpa
Young Palestinians walk through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli air strikes targeted Khan Yunis at dawn. Mohammed Talatene/dpa
A Palestinian searches through the rubble of a destroyed building after Israeli air strikes targeted Khan Yunis at dawn. Mohammed Talatene/dpa
Relatives of the nurse Heba Qadeeh, who was killed in an Israeli air strike, grieve in front of her body at Nasser Hospital. Mohammed Talatene/dpa
Palestinian emergency personnel search for survivors under the rubble of a destroyed house, following an Israeli air strike on Rafah. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
Palestinian emergency personnel rescue the survivors and remove the bodies of those who were trapped under the rubble of a destroyed house, following an Israeli air strike on Rafah. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
China announces further humanitarian aid for Gaza
© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
China announces further humanitarian aid for Gaza
Palestinian mourners gather to pray for the leader of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Muhammad Jarghun, who was killed in an Israeli air strike on his house.
Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
China has announced further humanitarian aid for the people in Gaza, Chinese state media reported on Thursday, citing a spokesman of the China International Development Cooperation Agency.
Out of concern for the humanitarian situation and the high number of civilian casualties in the Middle East conflict, China will provide 15 million yuan ($2.05 million) in form of food, medicine and other goods, it said.
Beijing has already provided aid for the people in Gaza before.
A
China has announced further humanitarian aid for the people in Gaza, Chinese state media reported on Thursday, citing a spokesman of the China International Development Cooperation Agency.
Out of concern for the humanitarian situation and the high number of civilian casualties in the Middle East conflict, China will provide 15 million yuan ($2.05 million) in form of food, medicine and other goods, it said.
Beijing has already provided aid for the people in Gaza before.
A general view of the destruction caused by an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City. Mohammed Abu Elsebah/dpa
A Palestinian man inspects the destruction following an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City. Mohammed Abu Elsebah/dpa
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PPalestinians inspect the destruction following an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City. Mohammed Abu Elsebah/dpa
A Palestinian man puts down hotspots at the remains of a destroyed building, following an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City. Mohammed Abu Elsebah/dpa
© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
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