The number of aid trucks entering Gaza dropped significantly in February, data showed, even as aid leaders warned of famine and demanded Israel and others increase aid to civilians trapped in the enclave.
The deaths of dozens of people amid a rush for food aid on Thursday underscored the extent of desperation in the region.
An average of 96 trucks per day entered Gaza through Feb. 27, down 30 percent from January’s average and the lowest monthly average since before the ceasefire in late November, according to data from UNRWA, the UN aid agency for Gaza.
“It’s stop and go,” said Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for UNRWA. “It is far from normal and far from enough. We should have had an increase, but there was a significant decrease.”
Aid trucks carry food, medicine and other essentials, and while the drop in numbers suggests a decrease in overall volume, the measure is not accurate. A relatively small amount of aid has also been airdropped to people in Gaza.
The decline reflects, in part, the tightening of inspection measures at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel, which has served as the main gate since it reopened in December. The goods also cross into Gaza from Egypt via a crossing in the town of Rafah after undergoing Israeli inspection at a separate location.
The chief economist at the UN’s World Food Programme, Arif Husain, said other factors were also hampering deliveries, including insecurity in Gaza and the fact that there are currently only two border crossings through which aid is allowed to pass.
Israeli checks on goods entering Gaza aim to eliminate items that could potentially be used by Hamas. Aid officials said in interviews that, while necessary, the inspection system caused significant delays that led to less overall aid. Before the war, about 500 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza every day.
In addition, Israeli protesters demanding the release of the approximately 100 hostages believed to be still alive in Gaza have blocked the flow of aid to Kerem Shalom.
The US special envoy for humanitarian aid, David Satterfield, said last month that Israeli military raids on Palestinian police made it almost impossible to distribute aid once it entered Gaza because security forces usually shield aid from desperate populations.
“Very little help has arrived,” said Alaa Fayad, a displaced veterinarian in the central city of Deir al Balah. He said the absence of Palestinian security forces allowed gangs to steal some of the food that arrived.
Jan Egeland, a former UN humanitarian coordinator who heads the Norwegian Refugee Council’s humanitarian agency, said Israel could allow an increase in amount of aid enter the territory.
“The system is broken and Israel could fix it for the sake of the innocent,” he said on Wednesday in post on social network X after visiting the border area.
Israel’s agency that oversees policy on the Palestinian territories, known as COGAT, pointed the finger at those distributing aid. For example, the agency said there were more than 200 trucks waiting to be picked up at Kerem Shalom, and that Israel has placed no limit on the amount of aid that can enter.
The drop in aid suggests that calls by the United States and other governments for a rapid increase in aid to civilians did not immediately bear fruit. It could also have wider implications. In an interim ruling in January, the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, ordered Israel to allow humanitarian aid and basic services into Gaza.
Some aid officials said they hoped a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would lead to an increase in aid. About 300 aid trucks – a peak since October 7 – entered Gaza during one day of the week-long ceasefire in late November.
Gaza was dependent on aid deliveries even before the war, when two-thirds of its population was supported by food aid. Today, food aid is required by almost the entire population of 2.2 million people.
“The risk of famine is fueled by the inability to get critical food supplies into Gaza in sufficient quantities and the near-impossible operating conditions facing our staff on the ground,” said Carl Skau, deputy executive director at the World Food Programme. a United Nations agency, told the Security Council this week.
Gaya Gupta, Adam Sella and Nader Ibrahim contributed to the report.
