Reuters
[Source: Reuters]
Distribution of food and medical supplies is faltering in Gaza due to a chronic lack of fuel, looting of stores, the choking of streets with rubble from Israeli shelling and overcrowding caused by displacement of civilians.
And despite an uptick in the trickle of supplies, the number of aid trucks entering Gaza remains tiny – averaging 14 daily – compared to the 400 trucks seen daily in normal times for a population of 2.3 million now desperate for essentials like bread, aid officials say.
“The level of humanitarian assistance that has been allowed into Gaza up to this point is completely inadequate and not commensurate with the needs of people in Gaza, compounding the humanitarian tragedy,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday, reiterating his call for a humanitarian truce.
U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) says a break-in by hungry Gazans on Sunday at one of its two warehouses has complicated its work. The second warehouse near the Rafah border crossing with Egypt has also become harder to operate because 8,000 displaced people are sheltering at it.
The agency has also seen 67 of its workers killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, the highest number of UN staff killed in any conflict in such a short span of time, it said.
UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said the agency’s priority was providing aid to at least 670,000 displaced people in 150 shelters, while another priority was providing wheat flour to bakeries.
“We’re way beyond our capacity” to do anything more than that, she added.
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