A Gaza neighbourhood in the aftermath of Israeli air strikes.Reuters
A small convoy of relief supplies has entered the besieged Gaza Strip for the first time since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, but humanitarian workers say it is a tiny fraction of what will be needed every day to avert a greater disaster in the Palestinian territory.
The first humanitarian convoy crossed from Egypt into Gaza on Saturday morning, but it had only 20 trucks in it, compared with a minimum of 100 daily trucks that Gaza needs, according to United Nations officials. It is unclear whether aid will flow again on Sunday and whether the trickle of aid will increase.
The territory of 2.3 million people is rapidly running out of water, food, medicine and fuel as Israel continues to bombard it with missiles. Israel has kept Gaza under siege since Oct. 7, when hundreds of Hamas gunmen from Gaza killed an estimated 1,400 people in southern Israel and abducted more than 200 others.
“The trucks that entered today are a window of hope amid a catastrophic situation, but they are not enough,” said Samer AbdelJaber, the Palestine Country Director for the World Food Program (WFP), in a social-media post on Saturday.
“We need continuous access,” he said. “People need food, water and medicine every day, not just once.”
Mansour Shouman, a Canadian Palestinian father of five who is stuck in Gaza with his family, said the aid convoy amounted to very little. “The 20 trucks are a joke,” he said. “We have dozens of UN schools that have at least 3,500 to 4,000 people each. These 20 trucks will be engulfed by one or two schools.”
Mr. Shouman is staying at the Nasser Hospital, in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. He said his family and others are surviving on scant food rations and foul water, making everybody sick. His children, who range in age from four to 16 years old, have been frightened and depressed since the start of the latest conflict.
The former Calgary resident said the last time he heard from the Canadian government was six days ago.
“They told us: ‘Don’t go to the border unless we let you know,’ ” he said, and no evacuation plan has been formulated since. Asked whether he has any demands for Ottawa, Mr. Shouman said, “The honest answer is I don’t think they can do anything.”
He expects the Israeli siege of Gaza to continue, but he said the conflict was likely to backfire in the long run as Palestinian youth and other civilians lose family members and endure severe privation.
“What the international community and the Israeli government don’t understand is that they’re creating a new generation of fighters,” he said.
Reem Sultan, who lives in London, Ont., has several relatives in Gaza who left their home in the north to go south at the request of the Israeli military. “Last night, they could not sleep at all because there were constant bombings” nearby, she said in an interview Saturday.
But the lack of water is the most urgent issue, she said. “The children are thirsty, they are crying out of thirst, and they cannot find water.” Ms. Sultan’s relatives are not Canadians and thus have no hope of evacuating. “They are crying pleas of help to the whole world, and they have lost faith,” she said.
Three WFP trucks carrying food, along with four trucks with medical supplies from the World Health Organization, were among the first trucks to enter Gaza.
“The supplies currently heading into Gaza will barely begin to address the escalating health needs as hostilities continue to grow,” the WHO said in a statement after the convoy began moving. “A scaled-up and protected aid operation is desperately needed.”
Earlier this week, WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan said a convoy of 20 trucks would be a gesture, rather than a proper humanitarian corridor. “It should be 2,000 trucks,” he told a briefing on Thursday. “Twenty trucks is a drop in the ocean of need right now in Gaza. Humanitarian assistance needs to move every day.”
More than 200 trucks are reportedly queued up on the Egypt side of the border this weekend, waiting for permission to enter Gaza.
Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian affairs co-ordinator, said the convoy on Saturday was a result of “deep and intense negotiations” with all sides. “This first convoy must not be the last,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Griffiths said the aid shipments to Gaza need to be done in a “safe, dependable, unconditional and unimpeded manner.” They should include food, water, medicine and fuel, he said.
Israel has imposed strict conditions on the aid supplies, including a ban on fuel deliveries and a prohibition on aid to northern Gaza, in an effort to prevent any aid reaching the Hamas militant group.
The Israeli ban on fuel is a highly contentious issue because fuel is crucial for the functioning of hospital generators, ambulances, water pumps and desalination plants, which are essential for health and water in Gaza. Fourteen medical centres in Gaza have closed their doors because of a lack of fuel.
“Two weeks since the start of hostilities, the humanitarian situation in Gaza – already precarious – has reached catastrophic levels,” Mr. Griffiths said. “It is critical that aid reaches people in need wherever they are across Gaza, and at the right scale.”
Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday that the death toll from the Israeli bombardment has climbed to almost 4,400 since the beginning of the war, with more than 13,000 people injured.
Two federal cabinet ministers, attending a peace summit in Cairo this weekend, are planning to emphasize “Canada’s grave concerns with the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and the importance of ensuring that assistance can reach Palestinian civilians,” Global Affairs Canada said in a statement on Saturday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen are attending the Cairo Peace Summit, along with dozens of senior officials from the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
Meanwhile, about 370 Canadian citizens and family members are trapped in Gaza without any way to leave the territory. They were hoping to cross the border to Egypt when the border gate was opened, but officials said there was no indication that the brief opening on Saturday would allow the Canadians to cross.