Palestinians refute US, Israeli claims about increase in aid flow into besieged Gaza

Gaza’s government media office on Wednesday dismissed US and Israeli claims about an increase in humanitarian aid flow into the besieged enclave, Anadolu has reported.

“Some 4,887 aid trucks have entered Gaza altogether, including 1,166 from Rafah crossing with Egypt and 3,721 from Kerem Shalom terminal with Israel,” explained Salama Marouf, the head of the media office. “But only 419 aid trucks were allowed into northern Gaza.”

According to Marouf, around 163 aid trucks enter the besieged enclave daily, a figure that is much lower than the 500 needed to avert exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the strip.

“This figure is significantly lower than the daily needs of our people, especially the residents of northern Gaza,” he pointed out. Only eight per cent of the trucks needed actually reach northern Gaza where 700,000 people face looming famine.

The official called for the permanent opening of all crossings into the Gaza Strip, and facilitating the arrival of at least 1,000 trucks per day, to avert the food crisis facing citizens in the central and southern Gaza Strip, and to end famine and the lack of food security indicators in the northern part of the occupied and besieged Palestinian territory.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Wednesday of an improvement in the aid flow into the Gaza Strip. Israeli and US estimates put the number of aid trucks entering the enclave daily at 300-400 trucks.

READ: ‘Yes, it is genocide’ in Gaza says Israeli professor of Holocaust studies

Last month, the Israeli government temporarily approved the entry of very limited aid into Gaza through the Ashdod port and the Erez land crossing and an increase in Jordanian aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

When Hamas carried out a cross-border incursion on 7 October, around 1,200 Israelis were killed, many of them by Israel Defence Forces tanks and helicopters. Just over 250 hostages were taken back to Gaza. Israel’s subsequent military offensive has to-date killed 35,000 Palestinians, most of them children and women, and wounded 70,000 more. An estimated 8,000 Palestinians are missing, presumed dead, under the rubble of their homes destroyed by Israel.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lie in ruins, pushing 85 per cent of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza. South Africa, which took the apartheid state to the ICJ, has since claimed that Israel is ignoring the court’s ruling. Israel denies all charges against it.