The catastrophic situation in Gaza is the worst it has been since the start of the war, despite the resumption of aid - UN
Kyiv • UNN
The UN stated that the situation in Gaza is the worst since the beginning of the war, despite the resumption of limited humanitarian aid supplies. Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid.
The situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas militants 19 months ago, the UN said on Friday, May 30, despite the resumption of limited humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave, where famine threatens. Reuters reports, writes UNN.
Details
It is noted that under increasing global pressure, Israel ended its 11-week blockade of Gaza almost two weeks ago, allowing the resumption of limited UN-led operations. At the same time, a new aid distribution channel was launched on Monday - the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, which is supported by the United States and Israel.
"Any help that gets into the hands of people who need it is good," UN spokesman Stefan Dujarric told reporters in New York.
But, he added, so far aid deliveries as a whole have had a "very, very minor impact."
The catastrophic situation in Gaza is the worst since the beginning of the war
The UN and international humanitarian organizations refuse to work with the Global Aid Fund because, they say, it is not neutral and has a distribution model that forces Palestinians to move.
Israel ultimately wants the UN to work through the Global Fund, which uses private American security and logistics companies to transport aid to Gaza for distribution by civilian teams at so-called safe distribution points, Reuters writes.
However, as Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon stated this week, Israel will allow aid to be delivered "in the near future" through both the UN and the fund. On Friday, the fund reported that it had managed to distribute more than 2.1 million meals to date.
Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies.
The UN says it has only been able to deliver about 200 trucks of humanitarian aid to Gaza in the past 12 days, hampered by the dangerous situation and access restrictions by Israel. It is unclear how much of this aid has reached those who need it. Some trucks and a warehouse of the World Food Program were also looted by desperately hungry people.
UN officials also criticize Israeli restrictions on what aid they can provide.
The Israeli authorities have not allowed us to bring any ready-to-eat food. The only food allowed was flour for bakeries. Even if it were allowed in unlimited quantities, which it was not, it would not constitute a complete diet for anyone
Some of the aid recipients from the Humanitarian Fund said the packages contained some rice, flour, canned beans, pasta, olive oil, cookies and sugar.
As part of a complex process, Israel checks and clears aid cargo, which is then transported to the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom checkpoint. There, the aid is unloaded and then reloaded onto other trucks for transport to warehouses in Gaza.
Currently, several hundred more trucks with aid are waiting to be received by the UN on the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom.
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However, according to UN officials, on Tuesday the Israeli military rejected all requests for access to the Kerem Shalom crossing point to receive aid. And on Thursday, when 65 trucks with aid did leave the crossing point, all but five were forced to return due to intense fighting.
Five trucks of medical aid reached the warehouses of the field hospital, but, according to Dujarric, "a group of armed men broke into the warehouses... and looted a large amount of medical equipment, supplies, medicines and food supplements intended for emaciated children."
Israel claims to be facilitating the delivery of all humanitarian aid. The Israeli military agency for humanitarian aid coordination said this week that 1.8 million tons of aid, including 1.3 million tons of food, have arrived in Gaza since the start of the war.
The US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire - which Israel has already accepted and Hamas is currently considering - provides for the delivery of humanitarian aid through the UN, the Red Crescent and other agreed channels.
During the two-month truce, which ended when Israel resumed its military operation in March, the UN reported that it delivered 600 to 700 trucks of aid to Gaza every day. She stressed that when people know about a stable flow of aid, cases of looting decrease.
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