TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / September 17, 2024
“The situation was intolerable long before last October’s escalation and is beyond catastrophic now.”
People in Gaza are only eating one meal every other day as 83 percent of required food aid does not make it into the besieged enclave due to Israel’s blockade, aid organizations have said.
“While Israeli military attacks on Gaza intensify, lifesaving food, medicine, medical supplies, fuel, and tents have been systematically blocked from entering for almost a year,” a statement signed by 15 organizations including CARE International, Oxfam, Islamic Relief, the Norwegian Refugee Council and KinderUSA, said.
This is “driving a humanitarian disaster, with the entire population of Gaza facing hunger and disease, and almost half a million at risk of starvation.”
The organizations said “83% of required food aid does not make it into Gaza, up from 34% in 2023,” emphasizing that this “reduction means people in Gaza have gone from having an average of two meals a day to just one meal every other day.”
An estimated 50,000 children aged between 6 – 59 months urgently require treatment for malnutrition by the end of the year, the statement noted.
“The situation was intolerable long before last October’s escalation and is beyond catastrophic now,” Jolien Veldwijik, CARE Country Director in the West Bank and Gaza, said.
“Over 11 months, we have reached shocking levels of conflict, displacement, disease and hunger. Yet, aid is still not getting in, and humanitarian workers are risking their lives to do their jobs while attacks and violations of international law intensify.”
Six ways of obstruction
The aid agencies detailed six main ways their life-saving aid “is systematically obstructed” daily by Israel.
These include the “denial of safety, with more than 40,000 Palestinians and nearly 300 aid workers killed since last October, and the sharp tightening of a 17-year blockade to a full siege,” which prevents aid from entering Gaza.
In addition “delays and denials which restrict the movement of aid around Gaza; tightly restrictive and unpredictable control of imports; the destruction of public infrastructure such as schools and hospitals; and the displacement of civilians and humanitarian workers (witnessed again in recent displacement orders from the so-called “humanitarian zone” in Deir al-Balah.)”
Veldwijik stressed that aid “should never be politicised” and demanded an immediate and sustained ceasefire in addition to “the free flow of humanitarian aid into and throughout Gaza.”
Amjad al-Shawa, the director of the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO), an umbrella organisation of 30 Palestinian NGOs and a partner of ActionAid, said there is a shortage of “all humanitarian items.”
“We are overwhelmed (with) these needs and (these) urgent requirements…People (are) starving due to the shortage of aid…100% of the population depend on humanitarian aid…It’s the worst situation that we (witnessed) during … the Israel war in Gaza.”
Ongoing genocide
Israel continues to flout a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 41,252 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 95,497 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Acute famine
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
