Volume of supplies entering Gaza vastly insufficient for starving population

Despite the tactical pauses that Israel introduced last week to allow some safe passage for humanitarian convoys, the amount of aid that has entered the Gaza Strip remains vastly insufficient for its starving population. United Nations aid trucks continue to face impediments on their way to deliver aid, while UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) continue to face obstructions that prevent them from bringing in and distributing aid at scale.

Even with the partial reopening of crossings, the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza remains a mere fraction of what its population of over two million needs; Israel had effectively blocked the entry of humanitarian aid and commercial goods into Gaza for over four months. Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are causing an increase in hunger-related deaths.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the world’s leading authority on acute hunger, famine is currently unfolding in Gaza, where access to food and other essential goods and services has plummeted to unprecedented levels. Two out of three famine thresholds have been exceeded in parts of the territory.

Although famine has not yet been officially declared, people in Gaza, particularly infants and young children, continue to starve to death solely as a result of Israel’s siege and deliberate obstruction of life-saving aid — a severe war crime and likely act of genocide.

The shortages are not limited to food. On Monday, the UN was able to collect approximately 200,000 liters of much-needed fuel from the Kerem Shalom crossing. However, the limited quantities that have entered Gaza in the last week are far from enough, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The lack of fuel continues to severely hamper water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) operations. Only 29,000 liters have been received so far, though 70,000 liters are needed daily for emergency operations.

“Everybody expects me to clap and say thank you,” said OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke in response to a journalist's question on Tuesday in Geneva regarding the fuel that entered Gaza last week.

But “the difference between the very small amount of aid that has now come in and the massive needs where people are literally dying on a daily basis, it's really out of proportion,” he stressed.

“The needs inside Gaza are such that there should be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and more hundreds of trucks, not only every day, not only every week, but for months, possibly years to come. This has been building up. We are now on the brink of famine -- as you know, that is not something that happens overnight,” Laerke explained.

According to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, a minimum of 600 trucks per day are needed to meet the basic humanitarian needs of the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip.

As international pressure mounts amid the growing humanitarian catastrophe, Israel has announced that it will allow the controlled entry of commercial goods into Gaza. For the first time since Israeli attacks resumed in March, a limited number of Gaza-based traders will be permitted to import supplies into the territory.

Approved goods include basic food products, baby formula, fruits, vegetables, and hygiene items. According to Israeli authorities, payments must be made exclusively via bank transfers, and Palestinian merchants must undergo strict security screenings. Israel will maintain the aid distribution centers run by the Gaza “Humanitarian” Foundation (GHF), which the UN has described as “inherently unsafe.”

“Aid alone cannot fix the problem”, Laerke pointed out, welcoming the announcement on commercial supplies.

“There needs to be a commercial supply going in as well, bearing in mind commercial supplies cost money.”

The great majority of Gaza’s population is unemployed.

“Aid is free of charge,” Laerke reminded reporters in Geneva, “and we have thousands of tons of aid, including food aid, standing just outside of Gaza, which has already been paid for by the donors. And donors expect that to be given free of charge to the people in need. And it's our job to do so, but we are not getting the facilitation that we need to do so.”

Children continue to starve to death

On Wednesday, Gaza health officials reported five new malnutrition-related deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total reported deaths to about 200, half of whom are children. Humanitarians on the ground say that hunger and malnutrition have devastating impacts, including a heightened risk of illness and death.

Meanwhile, more and more people are being killed or injured by Israeli attacks along convoy routes and in their places of refuge. According to OCHA, the situation is "beyond catastrophic," with hospitals overwhelmed and patients lying on the floor or in the streets because beds, medical supplies, and equipment are severely lacking.

At the onset of the second week since Israel announced a tactical pause to allow safe passage for UN humanitarian convoys, aid workers reported that the situation remains largely unchanged.

While some nutritional supplies, including high-energy biscuits for pregnant and breastfeeding women, infant formula, and hygiene kits, have entered during the past week, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) emphasized that this is still a fraction of what is needed and that malnutrition among children in Gaza is reaching catastrophic levels.

According to UNICEF, severe malnutrition is spreading among children faster than aid can reach them, and there has been a spike in the number of children who have starved to death.

UNICEF warns that the vast majority of severely malnourished children will eventually die from other causes; they are 10 times more likely to contract pneumonia, measles, or other deadly diseases. Most of these deaths will not be reported, as most malnourished children cannot even reach hospitals.

“It's very important that there is an increasing amount of pressure now from many governments because of the deprivations, because of the nutritional situation we see in children and in mothers and in women and in the elderly,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder on Tuesday.

“We mustn't forget as well, that on average, a girl or a boy has been killed in these bombardments every single hour since the horrors of October 7. So, the facts speak for themselves.”

International law is clear: civilians must be respected and protected, and they must never be targeted or deliberately deprived of food or access to other lifesaving aid. Doing so is a war crime.

The war in the Gaza Strip has taken an unconscionable toll on children. More than 60,000 boys and girls have reportedly been killed or injured in Israel’s military operations since October 7, 2023. Among the total, more than 18,400 children have been recorded as killed.

According to Gaza health officials, Israeli forces have killed over 60,900 Palestinians, most of whom were children, women, and elderly individuals, and injured more than 150,000 others in attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 2023.

However, the true death toll is believed to be much higher. Thousands more remain buried under the rubble, and a lack of equipment and insecurity hinder rescue efforts for the wounded and missing. Moreover, it is estimated that thousands more have died from indirect causes, including starvation, lack of medical care, dehydration, and lack of shelter.

Displacement orders issued by Israel continue to push people into overcrowded and unsafe areas with no shelters or essential supplies. Only 12 percent of Gaza is outside the Israeli militarized zone or areas affected by displacement orders. Aid agencies are unable to respond to shelter needs due to zero stock, as no shelter supplies have entered Gaza since early March.

War crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide

Among the recorded deaths are more than 1,500 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since May while attempting to obtain food in the territory. Most of these deaths occurred at the Gaza "Humanitarian" Foundation's (GHF) militarized aid distribution points, while others were killed near aid convoys.

The GHF is an entity controlled by Israel and the United States. Yet it is opposed by the United Nations, humanitarian organizations, human rights organizations, and the majority of countries worldwide.

Despite having "humanitarian" in its name, the GHF is regarded as the very opposite of a humanitarian organization. Its establishment for the purpose of weaponizing aid and limiting food aid to small groups of Gazans — those who can reach it and survive crossing combat zones — may itself amount to a war crime, a crime against humanity, or an act of genocide.

On Tuesday, UN human rights experts expressed grave concern over the GHF’s operations, stating that Palestinians are paying the ultimate price for the international community's legal, political, and moral failures.

“The credibility and effectiveness of humanitarian assistance must be restored by dismantling the GHF, holding it and its executives accountable, and allowing experienced and humanitarian actors from the UN and civil society alike to take back the reins of managing and distributing lifesaving aid,” the UN experts said.

“Blocking or delaying aid is not just inhumane – it is a war crime where it is intended to starve civilians and in the context of a well-documented and globally denounced genocide."

Leading international and Israeli human rights organizations, international rights experts, and UN commissions have determined that Israel's actions in Gaza, including the blockade and obstruction of humanitarian aid, constitute not only flagrant war crimes and crimes against humanity but are also part of a genocide against Gaza's population.

According to their findings, the Israeli government is deliberately inflicting living conditions intended to destroy a group or part of a group, as defined in the Genocide Convention. At the same time, Israel's war in Gaza continues to be characterized by grave war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli military and government officials.

These crimes include the collective punishment of civilians, the use of starvation as a method of warfare, the denial of humanitarian aid, the targeting of civilians and aid workers, indiscriminate killings, the carrying out of disproportionate attacks, the deliberate attack of civilian objects and undefended buildings, forced transfers, torture, and enforced disappearances.