UN humanitarian office says Gaza being ‘drip fed’ as hunger nears catastrophic levels

The UN humanitarian office warned today that aid deliveries into Gaza remain severely restricted, describing the current flow of food as a “trickle” into an area facing catastrophic levels of hunger.

“It is drip-feeding food into an area on the verge of catastrophic hunger,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), during a press briefing in Geneva. “It’s not a flood.”

Over the past ten days since the reopening of some entry points into Gaza, nearly 900 trucks were approved to enter. However, Laerke said only around 600 had been offloaded on the Gaza side, and even fewer had been distributed due to operational bottlenecks.

“The routes that we are being assigned to use by the Israeli authorities are very often congested, insecure, and there are significant delays in the approvals that we need,” he said.

Laerke criticised what he described as one of the most obstructed humanitarian operations in recent memory. “The aid operation that we have ready to roll is being put in an operational straitjacket that makes it one of the most obstructed aid operations, not only in the world today, but in the recent history of global humanitarian response anywhere,” he said.

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He pointed to Israel’s control over the aid effort as the key issue. “The blockade and the time control of the operation is imposed by a party to the conflict, the occupying power, Israel in Gaza,” he added.

“The alternative that they have suggested is neither impartial, independent or workable,” he said, referring to the Israeli aid plan with a US-backed aid distribution facility, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

According to the spokesperson, tens of thousands of pallets of food and life-saving supplies are ready to enter the enclave.

Israeli concerns about the aid going to “the wrong hands” were dismissed by the UN.

“Concerns about aid diversion that we have heard with no new evidence provided cannot justify shutting down a life-saving operation,” said Laerke. “The UN and our partners have strict monitoring in place with security and oversight on every delivery we handle, and we have seen no major diversion of aid under our watch.”

“What happens outside the system that we control is not our responsibility,” he added. “Our responsibility is the aid that we bring in and that is strictly monitored.”

Calling for immediate changes on the ground, Laerke said: “What we need now is a reopening of all crossing points into Gaza – aid from all corridors, including from Jordan and Egypt.”

“We need to be able to deliver food directly to families, directly to families where they are. Our accountability at the end of the day is with the people we serve and no one else,” he said, and concluded: “We need all parties to respect international law.”

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