UNRWA underscores insufficient aid flow into Gaza
AFP
NEW YORK: Israel’s recent steps to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza are not sufficient to reverse severe shortages, Gaza acting director of UNRWA affairs Sam Rose said.
Rose added that while “we very much welcome these initial steps to increase the flow of aid,” he said it is “not enough”.
“First of all, you [Israel] limit the supply of aid coming in, or you completely block it. Second, you criticise the organisations whose job it is to provide that aid, the UN organisations — whose job, of course, is made far more difficult by the controls that Israel imposes,” he said.
“And then the next stage of this is to frame humanitarian aid itself as part of the problem,” he continued. “And that’s the dynamic we’ve been facing over the past few weeks in which countless children have died of malnutrition.”
“This has clearly been part of an approach of manufactured starvation over several months,” Rose told Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, airdropped humanitarian aid into northern Gaza has sparked public frustration. Jordan and the UAE deployed three missions on Sunday, parachuting approximately 25 tonnes of supplies into the Beit Lahiya area. However, many residents say the aid never reached them.
According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, the combined contents of the three airdrops amounted to just two truckloads. Much of the cargo reportedly landed inside Israeli militarised zones, inaccessible to civilians.
The same office said Gaza needs 250,000 cans of baby formula and 600 trucks of aid per month to meet minimum survival standards. In a statement released on Telegram, it described the humanitarian situation as dire and called for a “radical and urgent solution”, demanding the unconditional lifting of Israel’s blockade and immediate opening of all crossings into the territory.
