A life-line for Gaza‘s roughly 2 million displaced inhabitants was back in operation on Monday, with convoys of trucks on the move. They were carrying urgently needed food aid after a sudden reversal of policy by Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government announced over the weekend that it would enable more food and medicine to enter the war-torn Palestinian territory after images of hungry people and malnourished children drew international condemnation.
Israel has also permitted humanitarian air drops. On Sunday, Israel, Jordan and the UAE all parachuted pallets of aid into the ruins of Gaza.
The drops look dramatic, but they’re expensive, inefficient and potentially dangerous. People have been hurt and even killed by the heavy pallets during past air drops over the territory.
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To meet the need, the bulk of the aid will have to come into Gaza by truck. Each truck can carry between 4 and 10 times as much as a parachute.
After 22 months of war, including months when Israel blocked all aid coming into Gaza, people are so hungry that they’re looting the convoys.
Video from over the weekend showed men clambering to pull bags of flour off trucks before they could reach aid depots.
International charities have a new name for it — “self-distribution” — and it’s a graphic depiction of the level of desperation in the Palestinian enclave.
On Sunday, 120 trucks worth of aid moved into Gaza. At least as much was expected to arrive on Monday — but it’s not nearly enough. Before the war started, more 500 trucks per day was the norm.
Maryam Yahya is one of the roughly 2 million Gazans trying to survive in a tent.
“We haven’t seen a thing,” she said. “No aid… from land, air or anywhere else.”
OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP/Getty 
Meanwhile, the war rages on. Israel’s military has said it will pause the fighting in heavily populated areas from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. local time, for an unspecified number of days. But there have been more reports of people being shot trying to access food.
In a statement on Monday, the U.N. agency tasked with helping Palestinians, UNRWA, welcomed Israel’s declaration of humanitarian pauses and the easing of restrictions on aid entering Gaza, but it stressed that much more was needed.
UNRWA warned that, according to its data, “1 in every 5 children is malnourished in Gaza City. More children have reportedly died of hunger; bringing the death toll … to over 100.”
“We hope that UNRWA will finally be allowed to bring in thousands of trucks loaded with food, medicine and hygiene supplies. They are currently in Jordan and Egypt waiting for the green light,” the agency said. “Opening all the crossings and flooding Gaza with assistance is the only way to avert further deepening of starvation among the people of Gaza. What’s needed is at least 500/600 trucks of basics every day.”
The Israeli military has also said it will secure safe routes for aid trucks to deliver and distribute their loads through Gaza. It’s something that the U.N.’s aid agencies have been pushing for and, if it works, it will allow much needed food to finally reach the people who so badly need it.