Gaza Aid Distribution Struggles amid Overcrowding, Debris, Lack of Fuel

 Palestinians look for survivors following Israeli airstrike in Nusseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. (AP)
Palestinians look for survivors following Israeli airstrike in Nusseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. (AP)
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Gaza Aid Distribution Struggles amid Overcrowding, Debris, Lack of Fuel

 Palestinians look for survivors following Israeli airstrike in Nusseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. (AP)
Palestinians look for survivors following Israeli airstrike in Nusseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. (AP)

Distribution of food and medical supplies is faltering in Gaza due to a chronic lack of fuel, looting of stores, the choking of streets with rubble from Israeli shelling and overcrowding caused by displacement of civilians.

And despite an uptick in the trickle of supplies, the number of aid trucks entering Gaza -- currently averaging 14 daily -- remains tiny compared to the 400 trucks seen daily in normal times for a population of 2.3 million now desperate for essentials like bread, aid officials say.

UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Monday that over the past day it had delivered hundreds of tons of flour to 50 Gaza bakeries, helping to lower bread prices by half, and to shelters hosting hundreds of thousands of people.

But the agency, which runs Gaza's largest aid operation, said a break-in by hungry Gazans on Sunday at its second largest warehouse was likely to further complicate its work.

A logistics base at the Rafah border crossing that is vital to aid distribution has become harder to operate because 8,000 displaced people are sheltering at it.

The agency has also seen 67 of its workers killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, the highest number of UN staff killed in any conflict in such a short span of time, it said.

UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said the agency's priority was providing aid to 150 shelters for at least 670,000 displaced people, while another priority was providing wheat flour to bakeries.

"We're way beyond our capacity" to do anything more than that, she added.

The number of displaced is four times more than UNRWA had planned for before the war as a worst-case scenario, she said.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said their Gaza City warehouses had suffered "severe damage" on Monday and were out of service.

Israel is blockading Gaza and refuses to allow in fuel, saying it could be used by the Hamas militant group for their military goals.

"The constant threat of bombardment, debris, and lack of fuel makes roads extremely dangerous and inaccessible in many parts of the Gaza Strip," said Jonathan Crickx, communications chief for UNICEF Palestine.

While UNICEF is bringing in medical supplies, he said, "distribution is becoming more and more difficult".

Sanitation ‘atrocious’

Aid flows to Gaza have fallen sharply since Israel started shelling the Palestinian enclave in response to an attack by the Hamas militant group on Oct. 7 that killed 1,400 people.

The death toll from the bombardment has caused international uproar. Medical authorities in Hamas-run Gaza said on Tuesday that 8,525 people including 3,542 minors had been killed.

Distribution is particularly hard in northern Gaza, the main focus of Israel's military operation, aid officials say, and some have halted all deliveries.

World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said on Tuesday it had sent no further aid to northern Gaza hospitals since Oct. 24, citing a lack of security guarantees.

A public health catastrophe is imminent, he said, amid the mass displacement and damage to water and sanitation infrastructure.

He said there had been 82 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza since the conflict began on Oct. 7, with 491 people killed in the attacks, including 16 on duty health workers, and 28 ambulances damaged or destroyed.

Rick Brennan, the WHO regional emergencies director, told Reuters that with 1.4 million people displaced in such a densely populated territory, conditions were dire.

"The sanitation is atrocious, I mean I was just talking to an UNRWA colleague, she said the living conditions are sub-human. Where do people go to the bathroom? How do you remove all waste?"

He said such a condition was ripe for the outbreak of diseases such as diarrhea and respiratory and skin infections such as scabies.

In Cairo, US Special Envoy David Satterfield, who has been negotiating with Israel and Egypt over aid deliveries, said providing humanitarian aid was critically important for Gaza, whose inhabitants say food and water have almost run out.

"This is a society on edge and desperate... and the UN implementers must be able to demonstrate that aid is not episodic," he said in a briefing for reporters.

Aid flows from Egypt have been slowed by an inspection system agreed with Israel in which trucks drive from Egypt's Rafah crossing along the Egypt-Israel border before returning towards Gaza. UNRWA's Touma called the system "way too cumbersome".



After Dealing it Heavy Military Blows, Israel Eyes Applying Economic, Popular Pressure on Hezbollah

 This picture shows the damage at the site of overnight Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on November 9, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
This picture shows the damage at the site of overnight Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on November 9, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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After Dealing it Heavy Military Blows, Israel Eyes Applying Economic, Popular Pressure on Hezbollah

 This picture shows the damage at the site of overnight Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on November 9, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
This picture shows the damage at the site of overnight Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on November 9, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

The first phase of Israel’s complete escalation against Hezbollah in Lebanon focused on targeting the Iran-backed party’s military positions and central command.

After assassinating its top leadership and allegedly destroying over 80 percent of its rocket arsenal, Israel is now shifting to applying pressure popular and economic pressure on Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s state National News Agency (NNA) had said that Israel has completely destroyed 37 villages and 40,000 houses in the South in its effort to create a three-kilometer-deep buffer zone and keep Hezbollah away from the border to allow the safe return of residents of northern Israel back to their homes.

The destruction has also reached historic sites of the South and eastern city of Baalbek. United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert tweeted on November 1: “Recent evacuation orders for the cities of Baalbek and Tyre forced tens of thousands of Lebanese to flee en masse.Worsening an already catastrophic mass displacement situation.”

“Ancient Phoenician cities steeped in history are in deep peril of being left in ruins. Lebanon’s cultural heritage must not become yet another casualty in this devastating conflict,” she warned.

NNA reported on Saturday that Israeli jets destroyed two of the most important heritage homes in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, weeks after they destroyed the city’s historic market. They also struck ancient Roman ruins in Tyre.

Since the beginning of its escalation, Israel has also laid waste to vast areas of Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold. Conflicting reports have emerged over the exact number of residential buildings that have been destroyed, but they are estimated in the thousands.

Dahiyeh has become a main arena for Israeli attacks, most notably the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasralla in late September and its targeting of rocket depots.

Israel carried out intense raids on Dahiyeh overnight on Friday, striking the areas of Burj al-Barajneh, Haret Hrek, and al-Hadath.

Head of the Middle East Center for Strategic Studies retired Brigadier General Dr. Hisham Jaber noted that after Israel’s failure to combat Hezbollah on the ground, it is now focusing on destruction and displacement, especially in areas where Hezbollah enjoys popular support, to prevent or delay the return of residents back to their homes.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that similar to the 2006 war, Israel has again failed at its ground invasion of Lebanon. Such a step will be very costly for it, so it is making do with incursions at five border points, where it has adopted its policy of destruction at a low cost and mainly focusing on areas where Hezbollah enjoys popular support.

Retired General Khaled Hamade said Israel has not completed its military goals in Lebanon. It is forging ahead in achieving its declared goal of destroying the party on all levels.

On the military level, it has destroyed the party’s command and control and assassinated top commanders. It also eliminated the majority of its arms and ammunition depots and a large part of its infrastructure in frontline border villages, he remarked.

Israel’s attacks on cities deep in Lebanon are part of its economic war on Hezbollah, whether it destroys homes, businesses and the party’s Qard al-Hassan banks, specifically in cities that are viewed as popular hubs of the party, such as Tyre, Nabatiyeh, Bint Jbeil and Baalbek.

Moreover, Hamade predicted that Israel will expand its attacks against Hezbollah to include its strongholds and areas of popular support in Syria.