USA: Israel brings enough aid to Gaza, but things are different on the ground

USA: Israel brings enough aid to Gaza, but things are different on the ground

The U.S. deadline for Israel to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza has passed. The Biden administration has determined that Israel is not blocking aid and therefore is not violating U.S. law governing foreign military aid.

Humanitarian situation in Gaza

The US State Department said that although changes are needed, progress has been made and therefore there will be no interruption in arms sales to Israel. However, this assessment is in stark contrast to the devastating conditions on site, where a large part of the Help reaching Gaza, is not distributed. Civilians fleeing northern Gaza report chronic food shortages and people dying of hunger. Aid organizations warn that the region is on the brink of famine.

Reports from civilians

“We didn’t see any offers of help and no one sent us food,” said 63-year-old Umm Muhammad Al-At’out. “Our children died of hunger and thirst.” Their accounts are corroborated by others in northern Gaza, where the Israeli military began ground operations again in early October.

Another civilian, Abu Ahmed Subaih Beit Lahiya, told CNN that he and his parents, who are in their 80s, walked for hours to find food: "There is no type of food." An 83-year-old woman who called herself Ghalia added: "We don't know vegetables, meat or fruits. We used to live on canned goods, but now there are none."

World Health Organization warnings

The reports from desperate civilians confirm the warning of the World Health Organization, which spoke last Friday of a "strong possibility of impending famine in certain areas of the northern Gaza Strip."

grievances and needs for help

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, recently reported dozens of cases of malnutrition in children and adults. There are several factors that have contributed to what aid groups have described as the worst humanitarian crisis in Gaza since the war began in October 2023. These include ongoing Israeli military operations, evacuation orders affecting hundreds of thousands of people, and public order failures resulting in looting of aid convoys.

US assessments and reactions

Last month, the Biden administration imposed one on Israel 30 day notice to take specific measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including increasing trade flows and ending the isolation of the North. As the deadline expired, the US State Department noted that it "does not believe the Israelis are violating US law" and indicated that they should not face any penalties. This assessment is viewed by many in the aid community as deeply problematic.

On Tuesday, eight humanitarian organizations said the Israeli government "not only failed to meet U.S. criteria to support the humanitarian response, but at the same time took actions that have dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza." Kate Phillips-Barrasso, director of Mercy Corps, stressed that commercial traffic to Gaza has come to a “complete standstill.”

Decrease in aid deliveries

The World Food Program reported that the average number of trucks entering Gaza in the second half of October fell to just 58 per day, the lowest level since November last year. Before the war began, about 500 commercial and support trucks were in use every day. According to COGAT, Israel's aid agency, 713 aid trucks have arrived in northern Gaza through the Erez West crossing since the beginning of October, but much of this aid remains at the crossing point.

Dramatic situation on site

Distributing food and water is almost impossible under the current circumstances. Aid groups say Israeli authorities often delay or deny access within Gaza. The World Food Program said on Tuesday that planned deliveries to the most urgently needed parts of northern Gaza had been rejected by Israeli authorities. A licensed convoy of 10 food trucks was held up for two hours in Jabaliya last week, with some of the food being unloaded by bystanders.

UN appeal

Joyce Msuya, the acting U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that Israeli authorities are "preventing humanitarian assistance from intervening in northern Gaza, where fighting continues and some 75,000 people live with dwindling water and food supplies." CNN has reached out to the Israeli government for comment on Msuya's statements.

A planned WFP aid convoy of 14 trucks aimed to deliver supplies to Beit Hanoun and the Indonesian hospital in Jabaliya, but only two trucks reached their destination due to "permit and route delays," OCHA said. The Israeli army claimed that on Monday “hundreds of food packages and thousands of liters of water were delivered to distribution centers for the remaining civilian population in the Beit Hanoun region.” However, such deliveries are just a drop in the ocean given the enormous need.

The economic situation in Gaza

In addition to the lack of aid, 13 months of continuous airstrikes have left Gaza's agriculture and industry in ruins. Most of the agricultural farmland is in the north and along the eastern border with Israel, areas from which hundreds of thousands have fled. The majority of Gazans have little or no work and cannot afford food at high prices.

Saber Salem, a father of 10 currently in Gaza City, said: "Maybe every two months we received an aid voucher. There is nothing to buy and when it is available, the items are expensive." Community kitchens and bakeries are already closing or are running low on supplies.

Struggle for survival and corruption

Amjad Al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) in Gaza, said soup kitchens that served 300,000 people a hot meal every day were now closed, as were many bakeries. The issue of price gouging is also prevalent. In Khan Younis on Sunday, dozens of people marched through the market shouting: “We are the people, you traders are thieves!” One young man said, “They sell a kilo of sugar for 80 shekels instead of two.”

Widespread desperation has led to frequent incidents of looting of both storage facilities and convoys. At the end of October, CNN filmed a desperate fight for bread in one of the still functioning bakeries. But much of the looting is carried out by organized gangs. The president of the Gaza Transport Association, Nahd Shuheiber, said this week that there had been "an increase in thefts from trucks loaded with humanitarian supplies" due to a lack of police that is often hampered by Israeli airstrikes.

Shuheiber added that “bandits” were stealing from the trucks at the Kerem Shalom crossing, “creating a state of chaos under which we cannot operate effectively.” Mercy Corps' Barroso-Phillips concluded by emphasizing that the needs in Gaza far exceed the available supplies. “And as a result, people are likely to starve to death literally within a few miles of where food is available.”