Aid organisations have accused Israel of hampering efforts to feed Gazan civilians by imposing a host of bureaucratic restrictions.
Amid reports of hunger spreading across the enclave after 22 months of conflict, humanitarian groups, including Israeli organisations which act as unofficial facilitators between the government and humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) inside Gaza, argue that the obstacles are making a bad situation worse.
One major hurdle is a new restriction by Israel requiring humanitarian organisations to submit a list of all Palestinian staff. Israel claims the request is designed to vet employees who may have links to militant groups. Visas can also be denied if senior officials of the humanitarian groups have voiced support for boycotts against Israel.
An additional obstacle is caused by the fact that all supplies entering Gaza come overland via Israel after arriving from Jordan, Ashdod port or the West Bank. The passage requires complex co-ordination with Israeli authorities and customs approval. The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza previously served as the main supply route but was closed down last year by Egypt after Israeli forces took control of the border area.
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The European Union, Britain and Japan have called for urgent action to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.
“The humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels. Famine is unfolding before our eyes,” a joint statement signed by the EU’s top diplomat and foreign ministers from 24 countries, including Canada and Australia said this week. “Urgent action is needed now to halt and reverse starvation.”
The ministers and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also demanded Israel “provide authorisation for all international NGO aid shipments and to unblock essential humanitarian actors from operating.”
Seventeen EU countries, including Ireland, signed the statement.
The UN’s humanitarian agency says the amount of aid entering Gaza continues to be “far below the minimum required to meet people’s immense needs”.
An investigation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), released on Tuesday, said Hamas has amplified claims of famine in Gaza.
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The IDF’s Co-ordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat), claimed to have uncovered significant discrepancies between the number of deaths from malnutrition reported by the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry and the cases documented with full identities in media and on social networks.
According to Cogat most victims had serious pre-existing medical conditions that worsened independently of nutrition levels. It said some had received treatment in Israel before the war. Officials concluded that these cases do not reflect the overall health situation in Gaza, but selectively highlight extreme cases involving chronic illness.
The UN and food security experts have warned starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels since the war began.
Eight more people, including three children, died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the previous 24 hours, the territory’s health ministry said. That took the total to 235, including 106 children, since the war began.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals.
The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. – Additional reporting: AP
