Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, praised the opening of the Rafah Crossing for a 20-truck convoy of relief supplies yesterday. “I am confident that this delivery will be the start of a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies—including food, water, medicine and fuel—to the people of Gaza, in a safe, dependable, unconditional and unimpeded manner,” he said in a statement.
However, the quantities of relief supplies allowed in yesterday left much to be desired despite bringing water, food, medicine, and medical supplies, reported Egypt’s major daily Al Ahram. It cited UNICEF reporting that it had sent in 44,000 bottles of water, proclaimed to be “just enough” for 22,000 people for a single day. “A staggering figure, yet only a mere drop in the parched desert that is Gaza’s current reality,” Al Ahram commented. (Current estimates of refugees in southern Gaza mean that for every person drinking water for one day, there are 17 to 27 more without.)
The World Health Organization chimed in with a bleak assessment, warning that the aid received over the weekend would “barely begin to address the escalating health needs” in Gaza. “Twenty trucks of aid is nowhere near enough. The blockade of Gaza means people are running out of food, water, and fuel. People are facing intolerable suffering and need aid. Demand a ceasefire, now.” Oxfam International wrote on X.
