There has been no “tangible” increase in the amount of humanitarian aid getting to the people of Gaza, despite recent commitments Israel gave to the European Union, an internal report has said.
Earlier this month, senior EU politicians said the Israeli government had agreed to let “substantially” more food and other vital aid into Gaza, to help alleviate the dire conditions facing Palestinian civilians in the besieged enclave.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top foreign affairs envoy, brokered the agreement with Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar. It included commitments to let significantly more aid trucks into Gaza, open extra border crossings and restore power to a plant providing clean drinking water.
The deal came days before the EU’s 27 foreign ministers were due to consider possible sanctions against Israel, in response to the 22-month war it has waged in Gaza.
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An internal EU report on the situation in Gaza said there had been no improvement on the ground. “Despite recent agreement with Israel to increase aid delivery to Gaza there is still no tangible increase, with important stocks of relief items stuck and piling up at the borders,” it said.
The small flow of trucks carrying food and other supplies faced problems distributing the aid, due to looting and encounters with large crowds desperate for food, it said.
Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, denies it is responsible for shortages of food.
The report, written by EU officials based in Jerusalem, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza “continues to be beyond catastrophic”.
Ms Kallas and officials from the European Commission have declined to publicly outline key details of the recent aid agreement, such as how many more trucks Israel had committed to allow into Gaza.
EU officials believe about 20 aid trucks had been permitted to cross into Gaza each day prior to the agreement.
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Officials working for Ms Kallas briefed diplomats from EU states on Wednesday, stating 132 trucks had been allowed into Gaza by Israeli authorities, over a recent five-day period, two sources said. It is understood officials acknowledged this was well below the level of aid Israel had promised to allow into the enclave.
Ambassadors from France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg, Spain, Belgium and Slovenia called for firmer action from the EU during the meeting.
The suspension of an EU-Israel free trade deal is one option available to the union, or economic sanctions on Israeli politicians, an arms embargo on weapons sales to Israel, and restrictions on trade coming from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and other occupied Palestinian territories.
EU negotiators had pressed Israel to commit to allow much more aid into Gaza, in the event of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants based in the strip.
Humanitarian organisations and aid agencies continued to issue increasingly stark warnings about the lack of food and water on the ground.
A recent statement signed by 111 organisations, including Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Refugees International, said Israel’s restriction on aid was seeing mass starvation spread across the enclave.
“The Government of Israel’s restrictions, delays and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death,” the organisations said.
At least 59,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, which began after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7th, 2023.
Israel blocked all deliveries of food, fuel and medicine into Gaza for 11 weeks. This led a growing number of EU states to call for the bloc to put pressure on Israel to change course.
A widely condemned system of aid distribution introduced since then has resulted in hundreds of Palestinians being shot and killed by Israeli forces while trying to reach distribution sites.
