Israel's requirement for international humanitarian organisations to re-register with its Ministry of Diaspora and Combating Anti-Semitism is adding another bureaucratic obstacle to increasing assistance to Gaza, aid groups have told The National.
Under the ceasefire agreement that went into effect on October 10, Israel must allow at least 600 lorries of aid into Gaza per day. However, data from Cogat, the Israeli military body overseeing the occupied Palestinian territories, shows that only 1,899 lorries entered in October – an average of about 61 lorries per day.
The UN said on Thursday that since the ceasefire began, Israel had rejected 107 requests from more than 30 local and international non-governmental organisations for the entry of relief items such as blankets, winter clothes and hygiene kits.
“More than half of the requests were denied on the grounds that the organisations were not authorised to bring relief items into Gaza,” Deputy UN Spokesperson Farhan Haq said.
The UN declared a famine in Gaza city in August and warned that it would spread to other areas of the Strip without adequate food supplies and medical resources to detect and combat cases of malnutrition.
“The 600 truck per day figure is what is needed at a minimum to make sure people don't die, when in reality they need 1,000
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