One-third of Gaza’s population has not eaten for multiple days, according to the World Food Program (WFP), with aid agencies blaming barriers put up by Israel.
Israel, on the other hand, has blamed a shortage of aid entering the strip on a “lack of cooperation from the international community”.
Aid agencies have described seeing adults “collapsing on the streets from hunger and dehydration” as over 100 orgnisations signed a statement calling for an end to the delays and restrictions on food supplies.
As children, pregnant women and journalists are reportedly starving to death in the territory, with aid agencies claiming there are thousands of trucks of aid just waiting to enter Gaza, The i Paper looks at what is stopping food getting in.
Around 6,000 trucks’ worth of aid are waiting to enter Gaza, the chief of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, has said, as they lie in Egypt or Jordan.
Lazzarini has urged Israel to allow “unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza”.
Israel said 150 UN trucks entered the strip on Wednesday, while 800 more are awaiting collection.
Gaza is suffering from man-made “mass starvation”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization chief, said earlier this week, pointing to an Israeli “blockade”.
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Food stocks in Gaza run out in March, when Israel cut off all supplies to the territory. Despite lifting the blockade in May, restrictions have remained in place, which Israel says are needed to ensure supplies are not diverted to militant groups, including Hamas.
Aid agencies, as a result, claim only a very small proportion of the food that is needed to feed Gaza’s estimated two million people is actually getting over the border – which can only be crossed through just a few of checkpoints.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said this week its aid stocks were completely depleted in Gaza, with some of its staff now starving, and the organisation accused Israel of paralysing its work.
As a result of the shortages, prices at food markets have skyrocketed, with a bag of flour costing over £400, according to the UK charity Christian Aid.
Lack of international cooperation hindering stocks, Israel says
On Thursday, Abdullah Halabi, the head of Israel’s Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, said that an estimated 1,000 trucks’ worth of aid were piled up inside Gaza, awaiting collection by the UN.
Halabi claimed they had not yet been sent out for collection “due to a lack of cooperation from the international community and international organisations”.
“We have seen in the last two days a slight improvement in their work, especially in the UN’s position and the UN’s organisations. We invited them here as we have done several times to continue to encourage them, to check together with them what can be done to transfer this aid in,” he said.
Speaking to reporters at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, he added: “We allowed longer work hours, and we took all the necessary steps to allow the international community to bring a very large amount of humanitarian aid into [Gaza], to combat the famine narrative, which Hamas uses to fight against us,” he said.
According to Halabi, an “intense and violent campaign” by Hamas against Israel’s humanitarian aid mechanism was also at fault.
WATCH: 950 trucks worth of aid, currently waiting in Gazafor international organizations to pick up and distribute to Gazan civilians. This is after Israel facilitated the aid entry into Gaza. pic.twitter.com/aQTR7Sryhs
— LTC Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) July 22, 2025The UN, however, has repeatedly said that Israel has refused its requests for collection and distribution authorisation, and that dangerous and complex conditions inside Gaza made aid distribution very difficult.
On Friday, an Israeli official said they would begin to allow foreign countries to “parachute aid into Gaza”.
“Starting this afternoon, the WCK [World Central Kitchen] organisation began reactivating its kitchens,” added the senior military figure, speaking to Sky News.
Earlier this year, with US backing, Israel set up a handful of aid distribution sites, using a controversial organisation named the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GFH).
The sites have proved to be ineffective at tackling the widespread shortages of food, as Palestinians have had to walk long distances, often through combat zones, to reach the them.
Once at the sites, the distribution of aid has reportedly been chaotic – and deadly.
Over 1,000 people have been killed by the Israeli military while attempting to get food from GHF distribution centres since the end of May, Gaza’s health ministry has said.
How serious is the problem?
Over 100 Gazans have now starved to death, the Hamas-run health ministry has said, with the most recent weeks bringing the most severe conditions.
square PATRICK COCKBURN Mass starvation in Gaza is the great horror of our age
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Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, said one in five children in the strip is malnourished, posting on X: “Parents are too hungry to care for their children… this deepening crisis is affecting everyone”.
The latest deadly surge in hunger has caused the death of at least 21 children, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said early this week.
Up to 20 per cent of pregnant women and around 10 per cent of all Gazans are experiencing either severe or moderate malnutrition, the organisation added.
In July alone, 5,100 children have been admitted to malnutrition programmes, including 800 who were severely emaciated, said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative for the occupied Palestinian territories.
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