ISTANBUL

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) announced on Saturday that its warehouses in Egypt and Jordan are “stocked, ready to fill around 6,000 trucks” of humanitarian aid to Gaza, currently under blockade by Israel.

In a statement on the US social media company X, UNRWA stressed that “the Israeli Authorities’ ban on UNRWA’s humanitarian aid into #Gaza must be lifted” and reaffirmed that it “has the system in place to distribute aid safely and at scale.”

The agency said that its warehouses are prepared to dispatch thousands of trucks immediately if Israel allows the humanitarian convoys to enter Gaza, emphasizing the urgent need to permit “life-saving supplies via road.”

In October 2024, following claims by the Israeli government that some UNRWA staff were allegedly involved in attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel blocked UNRWA operations in the West Bank and Gaza after a Knesset vote.

UNRWA, founded in the aftermath of the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, also known as Catastrophe, provides aid to approximately 5.9 million Palestinians across five main regions: Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.

The Gaza government’s media office reported on Aug. 26 that only 2,654 aid trucks had entered the enclave in the past 30 days, with most being looted with Israeli assistance.

The office highlighted that Gaza requires more than 600 aid trucks daily to meet the minimum needs of 2.4 million residents amid near-total infrastructure collapse caused by the ongoing war.

Last week, the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) report confirmed famine in Gaza, affecting over half a million people, with the risk of spreading to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis in the coming weeks.

Israel has killed more than 63,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, which is facing famine.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.