Aid not reaching Gaza, say relief groups as ‘more than a million go without food’

Relief groups have said more than 1 million people in Gaza will not have enough food this month, while trucks loaded with fresh vegetables or meat spoil waiting to cross Israeli checkpoints, and thousands of aid packages of food, medical supplies and even toothbrushes and shampoo remain stuck in a backlog of lorries unable to enter from Egypt.

“We estimate that over a million Gazans will go without food in September,” said Sam Rose, a senior deputy director of UN’s relief agency for Palestinians (Unrwa), in Gaza. “Over half the medicines in our health centres are running low, as is chlorine for water purification and other basic supplies.”

He added that Unrwa had resorted to trying to import single items such as soap, because kits containing a range of items such as washing powder alongside it have been blocked from entering.

“We believe we’re better served by bringing in bars of soap than trying for anything more complicated,” he said. “This shows how desperate the situation has become – we’re reduced to aiming for the absolute bare minimum to improve hygiene conditions, which is an atrocious state of affairs in a situation where there is a growing risk of infectious disease.”

“So little aid is getting in that we can’t meet basic needs,” he said.

Amed Khan, the founder of the Elpida relief organisation, said his group had unsuccessfully attempted to bring medical supplies into the territory for several months.

Related: ‘Man-made starvation’: the obstacles to Gaza aid deliveries – visual guide

The amount of aid entering, he said, “is the absolute minimum needed to ensure that people don’t die immediately from starvation. They could die three years from now from extended malnutrition, but this is the minimum amount of trucks needed to ensure people don’t die immediately, and avoid international outrage.”

Khan pointed to UN data that showed a severe lack of aid entering in the four months since Israeli forces took control of the Rafah crossing point. In July, an average of 100 lorries entered each day, largely through the southern Kerem Shalom crossing. This number halved in August, while just 147 trucks have entered so far in September, although the organisation added that there may be gaps in the reporting because of the dangers of staff monitoring aid entry at crossing points.

Data from the Israeli military body Cogat, which oversees the entry of everything from aid to the trickle of imported goods into Gaza, shows a higher number of trucks approaching crossing points from the Israeli side of the border.

Humanitarian workers attribute the discrepancy to a difference in truck sizes, and Cogat’s screening process, which requires lorries to be partly empty, as well as some trucks carrying non-aid goods for sale at local markets, often at prices unaffordable to many.

“As a consequence of the backlog at Kerem Shalom, thousands of trucks are stuck in Egypt, incurring several million dollars in demurrage charges each month,” said Rose.

Inside Gaza, the distribution of aid is complicated by a lack of fuel, Israeli military roads and checkpoints. It is also extremely dangerous: 280 humanitarian workers, most employed by Unrwa, have been killed in Gaza in 11 months of fighting according to the UN’s office of humanitarian affairs, Ocha.

A report published in late August by more than two dozen NGOs, including Mercy Corps, Oxfam and Anera, said that among the most “significant obstacles” were the delays imposed by the Israeli authorities in approving cargo to enter Gaza .

The report described piles of aid – including nappies, clothes and food parcels – in Egypt, unable to enter Gaza since Israeli forces seized the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing in May. It also said Israeli authorities only permitted three convoys of 30 trucks to attempt to cross each week through a crossing known as Gate 96 near Gaza City.

Aid trucks’ ability to enter Gaza “is at the arbitrary discretion of Israeli forces” the report said, adding that often, at most 15 trucks are allowed access to Gate 96 each week. As a result, organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières say that 4,000 packages containing items such as soap and toothbrushes have been blocked by Israeli authorities for three months. Mercy Corps said it took them four months to deliver 1,000 food parcels and 1,000 kits of hygiene products to northern Gaza, after Israeli authorities introduced new customs requirements.

Khan despaired at what he regards as the lack of a system for distributing humanitarian aid, particularly after the US military ended its $230m (£176m) project to construct a floating aid pier off Gaza in July.

“There’s a bunch of people trying to do the best they can in an ad hoc manner, with roadblocks all over the place, but no one can say we have a system,” he said. “There’s a system in place to block everything, but little else.”

“If I want to send a million dollars worth of medical equipment tomorrow, where do I send it? There’s no answer,” he said. “The options are working with Cogat or importing via Jordan, but this is a very slow process.”

Khan, a former aide to Bill Clinton with experience delivering aid into Afghanistan, Ukraine and Rwanda, blamed what he described as politicians’ lack of care towards ensuring relief reaches Gaza.

“Not one decision-maker on the planet cares about this issue, although everyone on the ground is ready to act. But for anyone in a position of power, humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza is just not a priority,” he said.

He added: “This is the worst situation I have ever dealt with. There is never a situation where you’re trying to help people inside a border controlled by an ally, but one that doesn’t want aid to get to the people you’re trying to help.”

Humanitarian workers were further alarmed by unconfirmed reports that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, instructed the Israeli military to examine whether it could take over aid distribution inside Gaza . They fear this would further stymie relief efforts. The Israeli military referred questions about this to Cogat, who did not respond when approached for comment about this or the data showing a reduced amount of aid into Gaza.