Humanitarian aid in Gaza woefully inadequate: UN

Tel Aviv, Dec 30 (IANS) The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said that the arrival of humanitarian aid trucks in Gaza is woefully inadequate.

“The volume of aid remains woefully inadequate,” the UN agency said.

The UN aid agency’s comments came after 81 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza through Israel’s Kerem Shalom and Egypt’s Rafah crossings on Friday late night.

OCHA, in a statement, said that Karen Shalom crossing was closed for the past three days due to security incidents. The crossing was closed due to drone strikes and seizure of aid by desperate locals.

At least 200 trucks entered Gaza during the week-long ceasefire from November 24 to December 1. Before the war and the massive humanitarian crisis that it has sparked, roughly 500 trucks of aid were entering Gaza each day.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials have said that they are inspecting aid trucks and that the reason for the bottleneck is the failure of UN facilitators to keep up with the pace.

The UN has argued that mass aid delivery is impossible amid the IDF’s aerial and ground operations in Gaza.

Kerem Shalom Crossing was opened on December 17 for aid to enter Gaza directly from Israel for the first time since the war’s outbreak but the move hasn’t led to the desired increase in aid delivery.