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ISRAEL WAR - More than two dozen international relief groups operating in Gaza warned Thursday that humanitarian assistance entering the embattled Palestinian enclave "has fallen to an all-time low" as Israel continues to block lifesaving aid, fueling nascent famine in the north.
"An average of only 37 humanitarian trucks per day entered Gaza in October, and an average of 69 per day during the first week of November. This is still well below the average of 500 per day which entered Gaza... before October 7, 2023, and was insufficient to meet the needs of the population," the seventh Gaza Humanitarian Aid Snapshot notes.
"For almost a month, Israel has blocked attempts by aid organizations to deliver aid in areas of northern Gaza, effectively severing the population from access to vital lifelines, including food, medical supplies, and all other humanitarian aid," the report continues, adding that "there is a strong likelihood that famine is already occurring in northern Gaza, and that immediate action is required within days, not weeks, to address the crisis."
"Tragically, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 20 aid workers from both Palestinian and international organizations," the analysis laments. "Staff were killed in their homes, in displacement camps, and while delivering lifesaving aid. Many aid workers lost close family members and relatives."
One forcibly displaced resident of northern Gaza told the report's authors:
Everyone has received this call before: One of your friends or colleagues or relatives or cousins is under the siege or bombs. And they ask for help. And you can't do anything. You can't do anything for them. And they die. They die while they are asking us to help them. This is the worst thing.
The report also notes widespread looting by desperate Gaza residents—a consequence not only of the bombing, invasion, and siege but also of Israel's targeted killing of Palestinian police officers—and criminal gangs extorting aid groups for "protection" money.
The new analysis came on the same day that a United Nations committee published a report concluding that Israel's policies and practices in Gaza "are consistent with the characteristics of genocide" and two days after the Biden administration—which backs Israel with arms and diplomatic support—sparked worldwide anger by asserting that Israel is not violating humanitarian law during the war.
A scorecard published earlier this week by some of the same groups that compiled the Humanitarian Aid Snapshot detailed how Israel has failed to fully comply with any of the Biden administration's 19 demands indicating compliance with humanitarian law.
As children in Gaza began starving to death earlier this year, the International Court of Justice—which is weighing a genocide case against Israel—ordered the Israeli government to stop blocking aid from entering the enclave. Israel has been accused of ignoring the order.
As the Humanitarian Aid Snapshot notes, Israeli forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded over 103,000 others as of November 12. Approximately 80% of Gazans are under forced displacement orders—a policy denounced by many as ethnic cleansing—and around 90% of Gaza residents have been forcibly displaced, most of them multiple times.
"The population in northern Gaza faces starvation, severe shortages of clean water, critical supply scarcity, and ever-increasing desperation," Mercy Corps, one of the groups that contributed to the analysis, said in a statement. "We call on all those with influence and power to take urgent action to de-escalate and halt the unrelenting violence in Gaza, to protect civilians and aid workers, and to do everything possible to achieve an immediate and lasting cease-fire."
(Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams where this article was first featured.)
