Aid to Gaza on rise, but UN says even more needed to avoid famine
Under intense international scrutiny, Israel has expedited the flow of aid into the Gaza Strip this month, but humanitarian groups say that more is needed as severe hunger grips the enclave, particularly in the devastated north.
Israel's efforts — which include opening new aid routes — have been acknowledged in the past week by the Biden administration and international aid officials. More aid trucks appear to be reaching Gaza, especially the north, where experts have warned for weeks that famine is imminent.
The increased levels of aid are a good sign, but it is too early to say that looming famine is no longer a risk, said Arif Husain, chief economist at the United Nations World Food Program.
“This cannot just happen for a day or a week — it has to happen every single day for the foreseeable future,” Husain said, adding that the main need was for more food, water and medicine. “If we can do this, then we can ease the pain, we can avert famine.”
Aid groups have long complained that only a trickle of aid is entering the enclave, blaming harsh war conditions, strict inspections and limits on the number of crossing points. Israel has maintained that the restrictions are necessary to ensure that neither weapons nor supplies fall into the hands of Hamas.
But under pressure from President Joe Biden after an Israeli airstrike that killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen, Israel announced this month that it would open more aid routes.
On Saturday, one of the first shipments by sea to Gaza since the workers' deaths set sail from Cyprus, according to a United Arab Emirates official and Anera, a relief group. The vessel holds 400 tons of food.
Aid has also reached Gaza through other new avenues, including a partly functioning border crossing into northern Gaza and the Israeli port city of Ashdod, about 20 miles north of the enclave.
Infrastructure work is underway to make the northern crossing permanent and to open another nearby, said Shani Sasson, a spokesperson for COGAT, the Israeli agency that oversees policy for the Palestinian territories and liaises with international organizations.
Now, about 100 trucks a day are reaching the northern half of the strip through two main crossing points in the south, according to Israeli and U.S. officials, compared with a total of 350 trucks during nearly the whole of March.
Flour shipments from the World Food Program have started to arrive at Ashdod, Husain said, which has increased the scale and efficiency of flour deliveries into northern Gaza in particular. Four bakeries reopened in Gaza City this month, in what the Israeli military called a sign of improving conditions. The United Nations shared a video online that showed bags of flour piled high in bakery storerooms and Palestinian children clapping for an aid truck.
Defense Department officials said Thursday that Army engineers had begun construction of a floating pier off the coast of Gaza.
The new aid is arriving as the war continues and Israel has signaled that it may be gearing up to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah. It also comes as the Israeli government faces renewed calls from families to secure the release of hostages taken captive in the Oct. 7 attack, after Hamas on Saturday released a video of two hostages that appeared to have been made recently.