CNN
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Israel’s Gaza blockade may have been partially lifted. And a new US-backed plan has begun to provide assistance. However, there are multiple indications that Gazan’s light-like shape is rapidly deteriorating.
According to the United Nations and other aid agencies, there are restrictions imposed on aid routes, ongoing airstrikes, lack of security, and ongoing evacuation of tens of thousands of people. Supplies that are at risk of being plundered.
“The people of Gaza are hungry. This calls for the urgent opening of all intersections and the humanitarian organizations to provide assistance through large-scale routes,” the UN Humanitarian Cooperation (OCHA) said in its latest assessment.
Um Zuhaia, a woman who was trying to get food for her family at one of the newly established aid distribution sites on Sunday, told CNN:
The number of sharply malnourished children in Gaza is on the rise, the UN reported on Saturday, but fuel shortages threaten to close hospitals that are still operating.
Israeli agency that processed aid testing to Gaza, the Coordinator of the Territory (Cogat) government activities, said on Saturday that 350 trucks, including humanitarian aid, entered the Gaza Strip through Kelem Shalom intersection last week.
And even the aid that comes in frequently does not make it the most hopeless. The UN agency reports on continued difficulties with regard to obtaining distribution routes within Gaza, agreed with Israeli forces. Ocha said of the 16 trucks ready for distribution last Thursday, five people, including fuel and water, were denied, and six people were unable to reach their destination.
Furthermore, looting of Gaza’s aid convoys has risen sharply in recent weeks.
“The operation faces an unprecedented level of anxiety and a very high risk of looting, and partners report that most looting cases are being carried out by desperate civilians,” OCHA said.
Nahed Shekhiber, director of Gaza’s civil transport association, said on Saturday that aid was suspended for three consecutive days due to repeated attacks of shootings.
Last week, the association reported that one driver had died and another injured while trying to help, but Shekhiber said on Sunday that 11 truck merchants from Deial Bala in central Gaza had been successful.
The distribution of aid through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US and Israel aid aid initiative that began operating late last month, is plagued by security issues. Last week’s CNN investigation found dozens of people seeking assistance in one of the four GHF hubs were killed by Israeli gunfire when they converged on the site before dawn.
On Sunday, GHF said it had operated three distribution sites to distribute more than 17,000 boxes of food, two in southern Gaza and one in central Gaza. Additionally, GHF said in its daily update that it has fed more than 10,000 meals to community leaders north of Rafah in what the organization called a pilot test of “direct distribution to the community.”
However, many people who went to the Nezzarim site in central Gaza left empty-handed.
Mohammad Salim told CNN: “I went at 6am and found nothing. It’s embarrassing to see what’s going on. I have an empty cardboard box.
He said some people took more than they needed to, complaining that there was no UN-operated ID-based distribution system. CNN previously reported that GHF does not have a system in place to screen recipients.
Nader Mussle, walking from Almawasi a few miles away, agreed.
“Some people took five or ten boxes, but there’s no organization at all,” he said.
Mohammad Abu Akouz was one of several civilians who claimed to have been injured after coming under an Israeli tank fire.
Israeli military officials told CNN that Israeli forces fired what they called “warning shots” from an armored vehicle about 1 km from the distribution site. Officials said the area is an active war zone.
The GHF said it was unable to open the site on Saturday, accusing Hamas of threatening threats to drivers and Palestinian workers. The threat said it made it impossible to proceed without risking innocent lives.
A driver who is used to the operation that asked them not to name them for security reasons told CNN on Sunday that Hamas “had threatened the bus drivers responsible for transporting workers to three American aid distribution points and warned them not to continue the transfer.”
The driver was scheduled to move 180 employees to three distribution sites, he added.
The GHF on Friday distributed more than 140,000 boxes of food, each box intended to feed the family for half a week. The box contains pasta, lentils and cooking oils, among other products. GHF says its goal is to distribute boxes containing enough meals for 4.5 million meals each day.
After last week’s shooting, the GHF “urged people not to reach distribution points that gather before official opening hours or earlier than expected, for your safety and for others.”
The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said in a post from X, which is being collected outside the distribution center outside the hours announced Saturday, it was “strictly prohibited,” warning that the area around the aid hub is closed between 6pm (11am (11am) and 6am (11am (11am)).
The United Nations says the use of GHF, supported by Israel and the US, has a militarized distribution of aid, insufficient for the major challenge of feeding Gaza families. GHF does not exist in northern Gaza.
In its latest rating, OCHA said there was a lack of cash needed to buy what 90% of Gaza families remain available on the market. “Meat, dairy products, vegetables and fruits are rare in people’s diets,” he said.
According to OCHA, half of Gaza’s community kitchens are forced to stop cooking due to a lack of supplies and evacuation orders.
The United Nations Relief Work Organization (UNRWA), the main body that supplies aid to Gaza, said on Saturday that a nutrition survey found that the percentage of children under the age of five suffering from acute malnutrition rose from 4.7% in the first half of May to 5.8%.
Unrwa said the number of children forced to dodge for them is increasing to “dangerous survival strategies.” Children are reportedly working on the streets and take part in looting or gathering among large crowds seeking food supplies at unsafe distribution points.
Food isn’t the only thing that’s chronically running short.
Dr Mohamed Abu Salmiya, director of Arshifa Hospital in northern Gaza, told CNN on Sunday that some hospitals in Gaza will still be “closed entirely within two days if fuel is not in place.”
He added that “many injuries cannot be treated due to a lack of blood supply and medical equipment,” and that medical staff faced difficult choices about which patients to save.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Sunday that Alsifa Hospital and Baptist Ali Hospital in northern Gaza were at risk of closing services within 24 hours. He said that would mean the rest of the collapse of Gaza city’s health care system.
In the south, the Ministry of Health said the Nasel Medical Complex is operating on a limited fuel supply that lasts within two days.
