Israel allows only 1/3 of aid trucks into Gaza under ceasefire deal, authorities say

GAZA CITY, Palestine / ISTANBUL

Israel is allowing no more than 200 aid trucks into the Gaza Strip per day out of the 600 agreed upon under a ceasefire deal with Israel, local authorities said Monday.

Ismail Al-Thawabteh, who heads Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Anadolu that Israel allows only “less than one-third” of the aid supplies needed for Gaza’s 2.4 million population.

“Israel is managing hunger in Gaza deliberately, slowly, and cumulatively,” he said, warning that malnutrition levels among Gaza’s population have exceeded 90%.

Under the ceasefire agreement reached between Hamas and Israel on Oct. 10, 600 trucks of aid were supposed to enter Gaza daily.

Israel, however, has not adhered to the agreement, launching almost daily attacks that have killed at least 342 Palestinians since Oct. 10.

Thawabteh said Israel continues to ban the entry of heavy machinery and equipment “needed by civil defense teams to recover the bodies of martyrs from under the rubble, in a flagrant violation of all humanitarian laws.”

He described the Israeli practice as “a compound crime consisting of deliberate starvation of civilians and obstruction of relief.”

He urged mediators and ceasefire guarantors “to apply serious and effective pressure to compel the Israeli occupation to comply with what it signed and to stop these grave violations immediately.”

Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed nearly 70,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and injured over 170,900 in a brutal offensive that reduced most of the enclave to rubble.