A Palestinian carries aid boxes distributed ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Monday.
Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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A Palestinian carries aid boxes distributed ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Monday.
Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The murder of 7 humanitarian aid workers Israeli airstrikes in Gaza Last week left serious questions about the future of aid delivery to the Gaza Strip.
Following a phone call between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the deadly attack, Israel pledged to open another border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip. It has not yet been announced when the new border gate will open.
However, the Israeli military agency that oversees Palestinian civilian affairs, known as COGAT, said in a statement Monday that 419 aid trucks had been allowed into Gaza, “the number of trucks highest aid into Gaza in a single day since the start of the war.” war.”
Before the current conflict, around 500 trucks per day into Gaza to supply its population of more than 2 million people, who have been cut off from the world since the 2007 takeover by Hamas, which prompted Israel to join Egypt in imposing a blockade of the coastal strip.
Aid groups and United Nations experts warn people here are starting to starve after six months of war and blockade. According to one United Nations humanitarian report28 children died from malnutrition and dehydration.
José Andrés, the Spanish-born chef who founded World Central Kitchen to deliver food to those in need in war zones and natural disasters, issued a scathing response to the Israeli airstrike. killing seven of its workers last week, what Israel called a “tragic mistake”.
“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing” Andrés said on social media platform X. “It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.”
However, precise estimates of how much aid will be allowed into this isolated coastal enclave vary widely.
Most aid groups estimate that overall between 3,000 and 7,000 trucks are currently waiting to be allowed into the Gaza Strip after Israel and Egypt inspected anything that could be used by Hamas in its battle against the militants. Israeli team.
A Jordanian official, Ahmed Naimat, a spokesman for that country’s government National Center for Security and Crisis Management, recently stated in an interview told NPR that up to 30,000 trucks were waiting at the Rafah crossing on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt to enter. He did not provide satellite imagery on which his figures were based. NPR’s examination of satellite images of the Rafah border crossing and truck holding areas does not support that claim.
Israel denies restricting aid shipments to Gaza.
Crowds of hungry Palestinian adults and children wait to receive food distributed by charities amid the Israeli blockade as the situation seriously deteriorates in Jabaliya refugee camp, Gaza, on March 27 .
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Crowds of hungry Palestinian adults and children wait to receive food distributed by charities amid the Israeli blockade as the situation seriously deteriorates in Jabaliya refugee camp, Gaza, on March 27 .
Mahmoud Issa/Anadolu via Getty Images
Israeli Strategy Minister Ron Dermer said: “There is no imminent famine. I think that is a complete lie and fabrication.” told NPR’s Leila Fadel last month.
“It is a defamation against Israel. You are taking advantage – not only you but the whole world is taking the statistics of the Hamas Ministry of Health at face value and propaganda from the United Nations organizations present in Gaza.”
Israel blames food distribution problems on Hamas, whose attack on Israel on October 7 was the deadliest in the country’s history. The surprise attack by Hamas rebels on southern Israel killed about 1,200 people. According to Israeli officials, the militants kidnapped more than 240 others. About half of those kidnapped continue to be held hostage.
The Hamas attack prompted Israel’s bloodiest war in Gaza as it sought to destroy the Palestinian militant group, which the United States and Israel designate as a terrorist organization. According to Gaza health officials, the war has killed more than 33,000 people in Gaza. Entire areas of Gaza have been turned into wastelands. Most of the population had to relocate.
Dermer, a close assistant to Prime Minister Netanyahu, said that according to the Israeli military’s analysis, the amount of food brought into Gaza is enough.
“That’s 3,000 calories per person in Gaza. So even if half of that was destroyed for some reason, you would have 1,500 calories per day per person in Gaza,” he said in an interview with Morning edition host Fadel.
Aid groups and famine experts dispute that, warning that famine is imminent in northern Gaza in particular.
“Famine is expected to occur anytime between now and May 2024 in the northern provinces,” the United Nations panel of experts on hungercalled the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification or ICP, said in a report last month.
Charity organization Oxfam International said last week that people in northern Gaza were surviving on just 245 calories a day – “less than a can of beans” and less than 12% of their average daily calorie needs.
NPR reported for some Palestinians have had to reduce their intake of livestock feed and succulent plants that grow wild in northern Gaza.
Alex de Waal, who leads the World Peace Corps at Tufts University, is an expert on humanitarian crisis and famine response. He said Israel had placed too many bureaucratic barriers on the way to transport aid into Gaza.
“The restrictions on who can operate and what aid can be provided are so severe that this famine has been allowed to grow unchecked,” he said. told NPR’s Ailsa Chang.
