Humanitarian workers say airdrops and corridors to allow trucks into region have done little to stop Gaza’s rising death toll
Aid workers have said Israel’s new measures - meant to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza - far fall short of what is needed and aid access continues to be blocked amid the population’s spiralling famine.
The new measures, which came into effect on Sunday and include daily humanitarian pauses, as well as airdropped aid and humanitarian corridors for UN aid trucks, were announced by Israel as international pressure mounted to alleviate the hunger crisis.
Aid groups have said Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip is the principle cause of the starvation crisis, which has seen 151 Palestinians die of hunger, more than half of whom died in the past month alone. While the crisis has deepened, Israel’s military has continued its attacks, killing at least 103 people in Gaza over the last 24 hours according to Gaza’s ministry of health.
“Twenty-one months in, these are token gestures. They’re theatrics, they’re designed from my perspective to deflect scrutiny. We’re being blocked and delayed at every turn,” said Bushra Khalidi, the policy lead at Oxfam, commenting on the new Israeli aid measures.
