The United Nations, which has warned of famine in Gaza, said on Wednesday the amount of humanitarian aid entering the enclave has dropped by two-thirds since Israel began its military operation in the enclave\u2019s southern Rafah region this month.
\n\u201cThe amount of food and other aid entering Gaza, already insufficient to meet the soaring needs, has further shrunk since 7 May,\u201d the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
\nA daily average of 58 aid trucks reached Gaza from May 7 to Tuesday, compared with a daily average of 176 aid trucks from April 1 to May 6, OCHA said, a drop of 67%. It said those figures excluded private sector cargo and fuel.
\nThe United Nations has long said at least 500 trucks a day of aid and commercial goods need to enter Gaza.
\nSince the Israel-Hamas war began nearly eight months ago, aid for 2.3 million Palestinians has primarily entered through two crossings into southern Gaza \u2013 the Rafah crossing from Egypt and the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel.
\nBut deliveries were disrupted when Israel stepped up its military operations in Rafah with the stated aim of routing remaining units of Hamas fighters. Egypt closed the Rafah crossing due to the threat posed to humanitarian work but on Friday agreed to temporarily send a backlog of aid and fuel via Kerem Shalom.
\nAid shipments have diminished \u201cdue to the closure of Rafah crossing, the inability to safely and consistently pick up commodities from the Kerem Shalom crossing and limited deliveries through other entry points,\u201d OCHA said.
\nIsrael\u2019s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Jonathan Miller told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that Israel was fighting a war against Hamas, not the civilians of Gaza.
\n\u201cThis is why Israel is committed to facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza from every possible point of entry. Despite Hamas rocket fire on the Kerem Shalom crossing, it is fully functional and aid trucks are entering,\u201d he said.
\nAid deliveries by ship from Cyprus to a U.S.-built floating pier in Gaza began on May 17. But the U.S. said on Tuesday that the pier is being temporarily removed after a part broke off.
\nOCHA said that no aid had entered Gaza from the pier on Monday or Tuesday. While operational, the United Nations transported 137 trucks of aid from the pier, the equivalent of 900 metric tons, a U.N. World Food Programme spokesperson said.
\n(Reuters)humanitarian aid. humanitarian aid, Gaza, Israel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United Nations has reported a significant drop in humanitarian aid entering Gaza since Israel began its military operation in the region. The daily average of aid trucks reaching Gaza dropped by 67%, with only 58 trucks reaching the area from May 7 to Tuesday. Israel has stated that it is committed to facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza despite ongoing conflict with Hamas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[122,6814,5926,11301,8625,3677,5334,4073,6432,11302,3,5592,2259,1978,2570,118,9141,4382,2658,145,88,298,10376,1235,399,299,9062,3504,10665,9597,4593,4795,4371,10330,345,462,1237,9744,837,9139,827,3660,124,1846,114,965,414,1759,293,18],"class_list":["post-13684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-aid","tag-aid-deliveries","tag-aid-shipments","tag-aid-trucks","tag-april","tag-cargo","tag-civilians","tag-closure","tag-conflict","tag-crossing","tag-cyprus","tag-deliveries","tag-egypt","tag-famine","tag-famine-in-gaza","tag-fire","tag-floating-pier","tag-food","tag-fuel","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-aid","tag-hamas","tag-hamas-fighters","tag-humanitarian","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-israel","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-military","tag-military-operation","tag-move","tag-office","tag-ongoing-conflict","tag-operation","tag-operations","tag-palestine","tag-palestinians","tag-pier","tag-private-sector","tag-rafah","tag-rafah-crossing","tag-security","tag-security-council","tag-ship","tag-threat","tag-top-news","tag-trucks","tag-un","tag-united-nations","tag-war","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n