Itimad Al-Kanu has escaped from the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army has resumed its offensive against surviving Hamas fighters. She moved south with her children – in Deir al-Balah, where, however, the humanitarian situation is no better. "I swear that every morning we wake up thinking about how we will spend the day, what we will eat. We just wish the night wouldn't end so we don't have to think about these things," the woman told Reuters in a report by German public broadcaster ARD.
Her life is like a slow death, admits Al Kanu, adding that the little food they receive is getting less every day and she fears for the health of her children.
Too little humanitarian aid
In the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the delivery of humanitarian aid has been almost suspended in recent weeks. According to a report by international humanitarian organizations, the situation there "is even worse today than it was a month ago, despite the U.S. government's final demands on Israel to increase humanitarian aid truck deliveries to at least 350 a day.
Earlier this week, the UN emergency agency Ocha wrote that since October 6, when the new major Israeli offensive began, until the end of October, Israeli authorities have not allowed any humanitarian supplies to the three largest cities in the north in the Gaza Strip - Jabalia, Beit Hanun and Beit Lahiya. Out of a total of 33 requests for access to the areas in question, 27 were rejected and six were prevented, the ARD publication further states.
"For a month now, we have had very limited access to the besieged areas in the northern part of the Strip,", also confirmed emergency aid coordinator Louise Wateridge at a briefing by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA).
Robberies hamper deliveries
Last Sunday, the Israeli security cabinet decided to increase the number of humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip. Yesterday, Israel opened a new supply corridor – through the Kisufim border crossing. This was also a request of the Biden administration.
According to data from the Israeli Coordination Center for Government Activities in the Palestinian Territories, 50 trucks per day have so far passed through the northern Erez border crossing. Since the beginning of the week, more than 100 fireplaces a day have been moving south through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, and there is enough humanitarian aid in warehouses for another 700 truckloads of supplies.
However, during the distribution of the aid, for which the UN is responsible, undesirable scenes are reached: criminal gangs seize the goods, Hamas terrorists confiscate them and force the merchants to pay a kind of tax, writes AR.
Author: Clemens Ferrenkote (ARD)