🔗 Share this article

While the border entry point with Egypt opens soon, humanitarian organizations confront significant difficulties delivering assistance to northern Gaza, the territory worst hit by hunger, analysts state.

Transportation Challenges

Major routes are virtually impassable due to extensive devastation across the devastated territory – or continue to be controlled by military units. Any truck that breaks down is almost certainly immediately stripped.

The primary crossing, the main entry point to the northern territories, devastated by 24 months of war, has been closed for many days, and government representatives have told NGOs in Gaza that there are no immediate plans to reopen the border point, as stated by relief personnel.

Damage in Gaza City

The main city was the objective of a major Israeli offensive initiated in August that was still under way when the temporary truce was agreed upon a week ago.

Devastation in the northern area has been extensive, with complete communities including local municipalities and adjacent communities in destroyed as well as many of the outlying areas of the urban center.

"Any activation of a border point into Gaza is welcome, but we need to ensure we can reach people where they are," commented a policy expert from an international NGO.

Aid Conditions

Witnesses said many of the approximately 300,000 people who have gone back to the northern area from the overcrowded coastal zone where they had been living during the military operations were now "living" among the debris of their homes, often without any housing and with scarce food or water.

A representative from a UN agency said the damage in northern Gaza was "shocking".

"There is neighborhood after neighborhood, building after building ... there is extreme need for water. It's pretty harrowing. We require each access route operational," the official, who was in the urban center recently, added.

Limited Access

A community leader working from Gaza City said the requirements in what used to be the area's bustling commercial and cultural hub were "immense".

"People have hope and optimism but there needs to be immediate enhancement on the crossings. We didn't witness any significant change on the situation yet," the representative commented.

"We continue to receive a very limited amount of assistance [and] we are just beginning to understand the degree of devastation. Multiple thoroughfares are completely covered in ruins ... there is hardly any residence that is safe. There remains harm and unexploded ordnance across the region."

Recent Changes

On Saturday, relief groups said small quantities of vital cooking gas came into Gaza for the first instance in multiple months, along with consignments of grain products, cereal and farm products. The new supplies sent market costs tumbling.

Within a central community, a civilian said there had been noticeable change since the peace agreement.

"The markets are containing food, vegetables, and produce, although the rates are remaining elevated and not affordable for all people," the individual said.

Cold Season Needs

"The primary requirements now, especially with the arrival of colder weather, are to have a temporary housing to shelter us from the low temperatures and cold-weather clothing because the stores do not have enough clothes for us or, if they can be found, they are very few and very expensive."

Multiple UN-supported bread-making centers in mid and southern regions have restarted operations since the truce.

Assistance Distribution

Transport were stated to have passed via the Kerem Shalom crossing through Israeli territory to Gaza during Wednesday, though specific quantities were uncertain.

The country's media outlet reported that Wednesday's assistance transports would include food, medical supplies, fuel, fuel for cooking and materials to restore vital infrastructure.

"Relief supplies keeps coming into the Gaza Strip through the humanitarian corridor and alternative access points after security checks," an military representative commented.

Allocation Problems

But tracking the volume of transports could be misleading, warned a professional from a humanitarian organization. "It's crucial to understand the contents of the trucks and their capacity levels for it to be a really meaningful metric," the official stated.

Business entities are transporting fleets of vehicles loaded with sweets, carbonated beverages and treats, which have little nutritional value, while urgent medical support for young people or people who have been without sufficient nutrition for multiple years are unavailable.

Treatment Situation

Throughout the main city, only seven medical centers are working, compared with 45 in July.

Various groups have significant funding worth of supplies stockpiled near the territory waiting to go in. A UN agency working with local residents across the region for a long time has extended provisions of sustenance for the entire population in place to be transported.

"We maintain the materials, the tools and the skills ... we only require the permission," said a humanitarian staff member, just returning from Gaza.

Diplomatic Factors

A diplomatic framework details that "full" aid should reach Gaza and be provided through the UN and humanitarian networks, without obstruction from both military groups or national security.

This appears to exclude the disputed government-supported relief agency which began operations in earlier this year, resulting in uncontrolled circumstances and hundreds of deaths as large groups of people congregated around its assistance centers.

Humanitarian workers in Gaza {told|informed