Israel Blocking Over 80% Of Food Assistance Into A Starving Gaza, Aid Groups Say

Israel is blocking more than 80% of food deliveries from entering a starving Gaza, according to data compiled by more than a dozen humanitarian groups warning of the dire consequences of the military’s almost year-long siege on the Palestinian territory.

Alongside Israel’s nonstop bombing that has flattened entire neighborhoods and shredded Palestinian bodies, the ongoing obstruction of aid – food, water, medicine, hospital supplies, fuel – is contributing to Gaza’s worsening humanitarian disaster, with the enclave’s entire population of 2.2 million people facing hunger and disease.

“The situation was intolerable long before last October’s escalation and is beyond catastrophic now,” Jolien Veldwijk, Gaza and West Bank director for aid group CARE International, said on Monday. Israel’s military offensive following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants that killed about 1,200 people has so far killed more than 41,000 people in Gaza, according to health officials.

“Over 11 months, we have reached shocking levels of conflict, displacement, disease and hunger,” Veldwijk continued. “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.”

CARE is one of 15 aid organizations working in Gaza that gathered and analyzed data on the consequences of Israel’s aid blockade, providing its methodology here.

In August, Gaza received a record-low average of just 69 aid trucks per day, while half the Palestinian population in south and central Gaza didn’t receive any food rations. By comparison, the enclave received 500 aid trucks per working day in August 2023, a number aid groups say was still inadequate.

“In northern Gaza, there is an absence of fresh vegetables, fruits, poultry or meat. And for us as humanitarian workers, it’s impossible to deliver aid at scale because we are facing many challenges,” Mahmoud Alsaqqa, a Gaza aid worker with Oxfam International, said in a Monday video. “We have shortages of the cooking gas and the fuel that disrupts the operation of bakeries, community kitchens and the transportation of aid and teams.”

“And also, the situation changes every day. The crossing is open one day, it’s closed the next. And even items are…