Israel still barring aid for crowded northern Gaza, few trucks reach south

Israel did not allow aid supplies to enter northern Gaza on Thursday, according to two aid distribution sources in the strip who spoke to Mada Masr. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the strip’s north have had no access to supplies since March.

A small amount of humanitarian aid, meanwhile, reached warehouses in southern and central Gaza on Thursday for the first time in nearly three months due to Israel’s blockade on aid for Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave, the Gaza Government Media Office said.

The supplies remain inadequate in the face of the scarcity that has taken grip in the strip after 81 days of total siege, which has caused widespread malnutrition and drug shortages to contribute to hundreds of deaths since the blockade began.

Jihad Salim, secretary of the Private Transport Association in Gaza, which provided trucks for aid transportation within the enclave, told Mada Masr that the convoy had not yet reached the strip’s north. 

The trucks must first be given Israeli military approval for their passage to the north, said Abdel Nasser al-Ajramy, head of the Bakery Owners Association in Gaza.

Local officials have estimated that around one million people are currently sheltering in Gaza City, in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have advanced over recent days, in tandem with a heavy bombardment campaign that has destroyed much of the northern towns of Beit Lahia and Jabalia. Northern Gaza is separated from the central and southern governorates by a strip of land, dubbed the Netsarim axis and occupied by Israeli forces. There have been reports of indiscriminate killing and abductions by Israeli forces at the notorious site.

Approximately 92 trucks entered the strip through the Karam Abu Salem crossing in the far south of Gaza. Ninety of these reached designated warehouses and vital facilities in the cities of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah, Salim told Mada Masr. Prior to the war, which began in 2023, around 500 trucks used to enter Gaza each day.

Thursday’s trucks passed through the city of Rafah, where Israeli forces are currently stationed, without security accompaniment, according to a truck driver and an eyewitness who spoke to Mada Masr. They were not allowed to be escorted by "security personnel" until they left the city, which lies adjacent to the border crossing with Egypt. Groups opened fire on the trucks as they passed through Rafah and succeeded in looting one vehicle, according to Salim.

Security personnel hired by the Private Transport Association, along with some of Gaza’s major family associations, escorted the trucks from Khan Younis onward and dispersed groups that attempted to loot the supplies there as well, Salim said. The Gaza Government Media Office also highlighted the role played by clans and families in protecting and securing the trucks from attempted attacks or looting, enabling distribution teams to deliver aid to those in need.

Approximately 70 of the trucks that entered were loaded with flour, and reached bakeries in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah, according to Ajramy. The union leader said bakeries immediately began to work to deliver bread to the World Food Program, which will distribute it in turn to people in the strip.

Amjad Shawa, director of the Gaza NGO Network, told Palestinian media that the remaining 12 trucks were loaded with nutritional supplements, sugar and other foodstuffs.

Aid agencies have pointed out that the supplies permitted into the strip will do little to mitigate the dire need among people suffering amid nearly three months of uninterrupted war and blockade. UN humanitarian coordinator Tom Fletcher described the permitted supplies as “a drop in the ocean.”

Salim said that after unloading their cargo, the 92 trucks returned to Karam Abu Salem on Thursday to carry back more aid. By Thursday evening, the trucks had not been reloaded.