Violating Ceasefire Deal, Israel Only Allows A Third Of Trucks To Enter Gaza

Illustration of humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza. (Twitter/@PalestinineRCS)

JAKARTA - Israeli authorities have restricted access to daily humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip to about 200 aid trucks just one-third of the 600 trucks promised in a ceasefire deal, while Gaza officials warn more than 90 percent of its 2.4 million population is now facing critical food insecurity.

Head of the Gaza Government Media Office Ismail Al-Thawabteh told Anadolu Agency Israel only allowed "less than a third" of the aid supplies needed for the 2.4 million population of Gaza.

"Israel manages hunger in Gaza on purpose, slowly, and cumulatively," he said, warning that the level of malnutrition among Gaza's population had exceeded 90 percent, as reported by Anadolu November 25.

Under a ceasefire agreement reached between Hamas and Israel on October 10, 600 aid trucks should enter Gaza every day.

However, Israel has not complied with the agreement, launching attacks nearly every day that have killed at least 342 Palestinians since October 10.

Furthermore, Thawabteh said Israel continues to ban the entry of machines and heavy equipment "which the civil defense team needs to evacuate the bodies of martyrs from beneath the rubble, a gross violation of all humanitarian laws."

He described the Israeli practice as "a combined crime of deliberate hunger against civilians and hindering aid."

In this regard, he urged mediators and ceasefire guarantors "to exert serious and effective pressure to force the Israeli occupation to comply with what has been signed and immediately stop this serious breach."

It is known, since October 2023, Israeli soldiers have killed nearly 70,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and injured more than 170,900 people in the brutal attack that devastated most of the enclave into rubble.