The UN claimed that more than 30 relief trucks made their way into Gaza on Sunday, making it the biggest convoy to reach the war-torn region since supplies started to flow in again more than a week ago.
33 trucks delivering food, water, and medical supplies entered Gaza on Sunday through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, according to the UN humanitarian organization OCHA.
“This is the largest delivery of humanitarian aid since 21 October, when limited deliveries resumed,” OCHA said in an update on the situation in Gaza sent early Monday.
To date, it said, 117 trucks had entered Gaza through the crossing since limited deliveries resumed to the crowded Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people, which is facing a near-total siege and relentless Israeli bombardment.
Prior to the siege, some 500 trucks carrying aid and other goods entered Gaza every day.
According to Israeli sources, after Hamas terrorists broke across the border on October 7, murdering 1,400 people—mostly civilians—and taking 230 hostages, Israel imposed a siege and launched a huge air assault.
Over 8,000 people have died as a result of Israel’s strikes since then, with half of them being children, according to the region’s health ministry, which is under Hamas control.
Over half of the population has been forced to flee as thousands of structures have been demolished.
UN chief Antonio Guterres voiced alarm that Israel was intensifying its military operations in Gaza, warning that “the world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe”.
A US government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Sunday that Israel was committed to allowing 100 aid trucks into Gaza daily — a figure the UN has said was needed to meet the most basic needs.
OCHA welcomed the latest aid deliveries, but stressed that “a much larger volume of aid is needed on a regular basis to prevent further deterioration in the dire humanitarian situation, including civil unrest”.
“In particular, entry of fuel to operate medical equipment and water and sanitation facilities is urgently required.”
Sixty of the 117 trucks that have been permitted entry thus far have brought in food and nutritional items, while seventy of them have carried medical supplies.
It stated that only 13 had supplies for sanitation and water.
Furthermore, Israel has stopped all fuel supplies, claiming that Hamas will use them to produce explosives and weapons.
