6/8/2025–|Last update: 09:54 (Mecca time)
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) called for the entry of hundreds of humanitarian and commercial trucks to the Gaza Strip daily, “quickly and without obstacles.”
On the ground, Israel does not allow a few days only to enter limited numbers of aid trucks through the Kerem Abu Salem crossing, which is under its control, east of the city of Rafah, while the Palestinians in Gaza need about 600 trucks per day as a minimum.
The UN office said that “despite the tactical endowment of the recent fighting of Israel to facilitate the passage of humanitarian caravans, the amount of aid that entered Gaza is still insufficient to relief the hungry population, and United Nations trucks are still facing obstacles that hinder the delivery of assistance.”
He added that the lack of supplies is not limited to food, as the need also intensifies fuel so that humanitarian operations can continue their work, including to operate relief trucks and hospitals, in addition to desalination, sanitation and hygiene operations.
On Monday, the United Nations managed to collect about 200,000 liters of fuel from the Karam Abu Salem crossing, but the limited quantities that entered Gaza during the past week only 29 thousand liters, which are not enough to meet the sector’s need, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
At a press conference of the United Nations agencies in Geneva, Yans Larkhe, a spokesman for the UCA office, was asked about the fuel that entered Gaza during the past week.
Larkie said that the needs inside Gaza are huge to a degree that calls for “hundreds of hundreds and hundreds of trucks, not only daily, not only a week, but for months, and perhaps for years to come.” He stated that Gaza is on the brink of famine.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), at least 600 trucks per day are needed to meet the basic humanitarian needs of more than two million people in the Gaza Strip.
“The declaration of Israel allowing commercial goods to enter Gaza will not solve the problem,” Larkie said, stressing the importance of entering the commercial supplies, taking into account that these supplies cost money and that the vast majority of Gaza population are unemployed.
“The aid is free, and we have thousands of tons of it, including food aid, on the outskirts of Gaza. The donors have already paid their price. The donors expect that this aid will be provided for free to the needy. It is our duty to do this, but we do not get the necessary facilities.”
Children’s suffering
With some food supplies entering Gaza during the past week, including high -energy biscuits for pregnant and lactating women, as well as infant formula and hygiene supplies, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirmed that this represents a small part of what is required.
“Malnutrition among children in Gaza reaches catastrophic levels, and the sharp malnutrition between them is spreading quickly exceeding the ability of aid to reach them,” UNICEF said. It reported an increase in the number of children who died of starvation.
UNICEF warns that the vast majority of children with acute malnutrition will eventually die for other reasons, they are more likely to develop pneumonia, measles or other deadly diseases. Most of these deaths will not be reported because the majority of children with malnutrition cannot even reach hospitals.
James Elder, UNICEF spokesman, stressed the need to increase pressure now from many governments in light of the deprivation and food situation in children, mothers, women and the elderly.
“We should also not forget that, on average, a girl or boy has been killed in this bombing every hour since the beginning of the war on Gaza on October 7,” he added.
With an American support, Israel has been committing since October 7, 2023 genocide in the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinians’ wandering, while its procedures on March 2 have tightened the closure of the crossings in front of humanitarian, relief and medical aid, causing fragmentation of famine and reaching “catastrophic” levels.
The extermination left more than 211 thousand Palestinians between a martyr and a wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9 thousand missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced people and the famine that has been tired of many.