At the weekend, they towed the first trucks with emergency aid into southern Gaza. They were loaded with medicine, food and drinking water. Since Saturday, 34 trucks have delivered emergency aid to the besieged Palestinian enclave, which for the past two weeks has been completely without humanitarian aid. On Monday morning, a third column of trucks will be on their way into Gaza. UN Secretary-General António Guterres is aware that the volume of deliveries that have slipped in is not large enough. He says that at least 100 trucks are needed daily to cover the need for food, drinking water, medical equipment and fuel. – A drop in the ocean The Norwegian Refugee Council also believes that the emergency aid that has been released so far is nowhere near enough to cover the humanitarian needs. – It is a very important breakthrough that the border crossing at Rafah was finally opened for emergency aid. But what has come in so far is unfortunately just a drop in the ocean, says special adviser at the Norwegian Refugee Council, Becky Bakr Abdulla. She says that 20 trucks with emergency aid only cover the needs of about one percent of the population. – Behova is huge now. It is also important to point out that the emergency aid does not reach the hundreds of thousands of people who are still in the north of Gaza. Most of all, the civilian population needs protection and an arbitrary ceasefire, says Abdulla. No help without fuel Even 100 trucks a day may not be enough, Philippe Lazzarini believes. He is Commissioner-General of the UN’s Emergency Relief Organization for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Lazzarini told the BBC that before the war, up to 500 trucks of emergency aid and fuel went to Gaza every day. FUEL: Without fuel, emergency aid does not reach those who need it, says Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. Photo: Hassan Ammar / AP In Gaza, the civilian population now lacks most things, including fuel to keep the hospitals operating. So far, fuel has not been allowed to slip in among the emergency aid deliveries. – Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospital or bakery. Without fuel, emergency aid does not reach those who desperately need it. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian aid. Without fuel, the children, women and people of Gaza suffocate further, says Lazzarini. There are now around 2.3 million people in Gaza. Without the supply of aid, we will soon face an “unparalleled humanitarian disaster”, writes the UN. – For every hour these supplies remain on the Egyptian side of the border, more girls and boys, women and men, especially the vulnerable or disabled, will die, says the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. At the weekend, volunteers from the Red Crescent worked to pack up emergency aid to be sent to Gaza. Photo: KARIM SAHIB / AFP Fears that fuel will benefit Hamas Last week, more than 160 trucks, full of emergency aid, were ready at the Rafah border crossing in Egypt. Israeli authorities have been clear that they will release “limited” emergency aid into Gaza, as long as it does not benefit Hamas. The fact that no fuel has been delivered to Gaza so far is to be blamed on Israel’s fear that Hamas could use the fuel for military purposes. KEREM SHALOM: It is this border crossing that is normally used when goods enter Gaza. The picture is from 10 September this year, just a month before Israel closed it. Photo: SAID KHATIB / AFP It is Israel that decides what comes in and out of Gaza. The Palestinians in Gaza have thus been completely dependent on Israel for the supply of goods since 2007, when Israel introduced a blockade after Hamas took control of the enclave. Figures from OCHA show that in 2022, 106,449 truck loads of goods and equipment were delivered to Gaza from all the Israeli border crossings. In the years 2015–2021, an average of 106,369 truck loads were delivered per year. There are 291 trucks a day. Facts about the victims of the war between Israel and Hamas Since the war between Hamas and Israel broke out on 7 October, more than 7,000 people have been killed in Israel, the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. 4,137 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes against the Gaza Strip, and over 13,000 have been injured since October 7, according to Gaza’s health authorities. At least 1,524 of those killed are children and 1,000 women, according to the Palestinian authorities. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah has registered 81 killed and 1,250 wounded in the West Bank in the same period. Israel has also stated that 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in the fighting that took place inside Israel. In Israel, over 1,400 people have been killed since Hamas attacked the country on 7 October. Among those killed are at least 306 soldiers, according to the Israeli army (IDF). Over 3,600 people were injured in the Hamas attacks. An unknown number of children are among the victims. At least 203 people were captured by Palestinian militants and taken to the Gaza Strip, according to the IDF, which says most of them are alive. Among those killed and abducted in Israel are over 160 foreign nationals, many of whom also had Israeli citizenship. The victims were from the USA, Thailand, France, Russia, Nepal, Argentina and Ukraine, among others. Source: NTB Border closed again After the first delivery of emergency aid on Saturday, the Rafah crossing was closed again. This is due to Israeli demands for stricter inspections. In an analysis for The Irish Times, Middle East expert Michael Jansen points to another problem: The border crossing in Rafah is not sized to handle the volume of emergency aid that is now being sought to enter Gaza. Such deliveries of goods usually go through the Israeli Kerem-Shalom border crossing. It is designed to handle the flow of commercial goods into Gaza. Kerem-Shalom has been closed since 7 October.
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