The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released a report on Wednesday saying the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza has dropped by 67% following Israel’s offensive into the southern city of Rafah.
The Washington Post reported, “Conditions in Gaza are ‘worse now than ever before,’ Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said Thursday.”
The U.N. agency reported that “server constraints,” such as restricted border access and tense operational environments, are making it difficult for humanitarian workers to deliver “life-saving aid to hundreds of thousands of people across Gaza.”
According to the report, the daily average of relief trucks reaching Gaza was 176 between April 1 and May 6. However, this number has dropped to just 58 between May 7 and May 28, representing a two-thirds decrease.
“The amount of food and other aid entering Gaza, already insufficient to meet the soaring needs, has further shrunk since 7 May,” the organization said on Wednesday.
CNN reported the drop in aid occurred after Israel began a military offensive on Rafah earlier this month in attempts to take out Hamas.
The Washington Post said, “Israel maintains that the last battalions of Hamas are inside Rafah, as well as the remaining hostages held by the militant group. Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security adviser, said Wednesday that destroying Hamas and other militant groups will take ‘another seven months,’ adding that 2024 would be ‘a year of war.’”
The U.S. made efforts to assist in humanitarian aid through a military-built pier, but the pier was broken apart by strong winds and rough seas just over a week after operational use. The $320 million-dollar project is currently being reassembled in southern Israel and is set to be reinstalled and operational next week.
“The aid brought through the pier was enough to feed thousands for a month, but U.N. data shows it barely made a dent in the overall need of Gaza’s 2.3 million people,” The Associated Press stated.
The Rafah crossing has previously been the heart of aid flow into the Gaza Strip, and is currently blocked since the attack on its Gazan side. As a result, supplies have been piling up in Egypt, causing the Strip to be on the brink of famine.
The Associated Press reported that the United States Agency for International Development stated in order to bring people back from this near famine there would need to be an increase of 600 trucks a day to ease the struggle for food.
The International Court of Justice has described the lack of humanitarian aid in Gaza as “disastrous.”