The UN Food Agency Calls Livestock Feed For Gaza Blocked For Months At The Border

Antrean truk pengangkut bantuan di Rafah dari sisi Mesir. (Twitter/@ChinaAmbUN)

JAKARTA - The United Nations (UN) food agency said on Tuesday that deliveries of animal feed to meet the needs of dairy-producing cattle were blocked on the Gaza border for months, when Israel launched its attack on Hamas militants in the trapped Palestinian enclave.

The wages intended for farmers and herders, mostly in northern Gaza, will be "sufficient to produce milk for all children in Gaza for more than a month," said Assistant Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization Abdul Hakim Elwaer.

"We have cattle feed trucks starting in December and we are having a hard time," Elwaer said.

The blockade has now been lifted, but the shipment has not yet entered Gaza, he said.

Elwaer did not mention which authority rejected the aid, but an inspection at the Rafah crossing to Gaza was carried out by Israel. Israel's COGAT, the agency of the Ministry of Defense tasked with coordinating aid to Gaza, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The supply was kept near the border for two months, after obtaining preliminary approval from Israel.

Elwaer said animal feed was rejected at the border because priority deliveries were food and water. Later he said he had been told the rules had now been lifted.

"We have to go through a long process of fumigation and preparation before sending them back to Rafah. And even if we get to Rafah, we're not sure we can send them north of Gaza," he said.

It is known, war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians homeless due to Israeli bombardment, while food, drinking water, and medicines are becoming scarce. UN agencies say hunger is imminent.

Meanwhile, aid agencies say Israel has done little to provide access, especially to isolated northern Gaza, and has pressured authorities to do more.

Israel denies it has hindered the delivery of aid goods, saying the United Nations has failed to distribute aid in Gaza.