Aid trucks enter Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem crossing in the south as living conditions for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians continue to deteriorate due to Israel’s ongoing war against the Palestinian enclave .
Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera TV shared a video on Sunday showing aid trucks entering Gaza through the crossing, known to Israelis as Kerem Shalom. Humanitarian officials said 200 trucks loaded with aid were set to enter the Gaza Strip.
The Karem Abu Salem crossing is located at the intersection of Israel, Gaza and Egypt.
The first four trucks to enter Gaza were carrying fuel for hospitals and desalination plants, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud said from Deir el-Balah in Gaza. He added that four other trucks were to transport cooking gas.
Mahmoud said the aid will be distributed to organizations expected to receive the aid, which will transport it to warehouses located in the evacuation zone of Khan Younis city and central Gaza.
But, he warned, this aid is not enough.
“The 200 trucks are not enough in the face of the challenges and difficult conditions created not only by the intense bombing campaign but also by the conditions created on the ground,” Mahmoud said.
“We are talking about a failing aid mechanism on the ground in terms of the security of humanitarian workers, in terms of infrastructure, as well as warehouses that have been deliberately attacked several times in the past. »
The volume of Sunday’s deliveries is still far below what the United Nations estimates is the minimum of 500 to 600 trucks needed daily to feed millions of people – most of them refugees – on the brink of starvation. The Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitor, has warned of imminent famine in parts of Gaza, where 2.3 million people live.
Aid to Gaza has been blocked at the Rafah border crossing since early May after Israeli forces intensified their military offensive in the area where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians had taken refuge. Rafah is the main entry point into Gaza for humanitarian aid and commercial supplies.
U.N. officials, aid groups and health workers have been pleading with Israel for days, if not weeks, to allow much-needed food, fuel and medical supplies to be delivered to Gaza, warning against doing so. could plunge the region into a massive crisis. famine.
Egypt reached an agreement with the United States on Friday to allow UN humanitarian aid to temporarily enter Gaza through Karem Abu Salem until legal mechanisms are in place to reopen the crossing of Rafah on the Palestinian side.
There were reports that some food items destined for Gaza had started to rot due to the delay in delivery despite Israeli objections.
Dozens of deaths in the last 24 hours
Even if aid arrives in Gaza after weeks, it remains unclear how it will be delivered to the areas amid incessant Israeli bombings and massacres.
Gaza’s health ministry said Sunday that at least 35,984 people had been killed in the territory since October. The death toll rose to at least 81 in the last 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 80,643 others were injured.
On Sunday, a Gaza health official told Tel Aviv Tribune that at least 58 people had been killed across the territory in the past 24 hours, including 10 children sheltering at a school in Jabalia.
In Rafah, the epicenter of the latest Israeli military offensive in southern Gaza, at least six people from the same family were killed in an Israeli attack.
Survivors of the attack were taken to a Kuwaiti hospital, according to the Wafa news agency. It is unclear how many people were injured.
Separate Israeli attacks targeting a women’s center in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza also killed a child and six other people.
In northern Gaza, Israeli forces are advancing on Jabalia, attempting to take control of its largest refugee camp.
Fighting in the camp has intensified over the past two weeks, with Hamas claiming on Saturday that it had captured some Israeli soldiers during the fighting in Jabalia. The Israeli military rejected this claim.
