The Israel-Hamas ceasefire mandates the entry of 600 truckloads of aid into Gaza every day for the initial six-week period, Chief of the International Rescue Committee David Miliband told Reuters on Monday.
Of the 600 trucks, 50 are to carry fuel.
Miliband said the increase in aid was “a big step up [and] will take time.”
“We want to ramp up as quickly as possible,” he added.
He said the IRC in Gaza is focused particularly on water and sanitation, child protection and other healthcare.
“What counts is the medicine that gets through, the water… the fuel… the aid workers… and whether they get through safely,” he continued, referencing the issues with delivering aid to Gaza over the last 15 months due to looting, hijacking and security threats.
More than 630 humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Sunday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council, with at least 300 of those trucks going to the enclave’s north, where the UN says famine looms.
Qatar’s foreign ministry announced that it would be providing Gaza with 1.25 million liters of fuel every day of the ten first days of the ceasefire, via a newly-launched land bridge.
Issues delivering aid
There have been significant obstacles to aid delivery into Gaza since October 7, with gangs and terrorists looting trucks, such as those sent in by the United Nations. In December, the New York Times spoke to Hazem Isleem, a Palestinian truck driver, who said that armed looters ambushed him, forcing him to drive off course and held him at gunpoint for hours as they pillaged thousands of pounds of aid intended for Gazans.
“It was terrifying,” Isleem reportedly said, “But the worst part was we weren’t able to deliver the food to the people.”
Due to similar incidents like this, UNRWA announced it would no longer deliver aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing due to the disorder and violence.
Hamas terrorists have confiscated so much humanitarian aid that the terror group is struggling to find space in warehouses to store all of it, according to intercepted communications between Hamas operatives that were played during an episode of N12’s “Ulpan Shishi” in September.
The Washington Post in November reported that Gazan gangs were capitalizing on restrictions on the entry of goods by controlling the flow of products such as tobacco.
This turned cigarettes, in particular, into a form of currency, reportedly selling for up to $1,000 per pack.
