Israel announced last Sunday it would pause military activity in some areas to allow more aid into Gaza following international outrage over widespread starvation and deaths from malnutrition caused by the Israeli military’s offensive and aid restrictions.
But humanitarian organizations say the amount of aid that has entered the enclave is not enough, and without more food, growing numbers of Palestinians will die from hunger.
NBC News takes a look at how much aid has entered Gaza in the week since Israel announced the new system, and how that stacks up to the needs of the population.
A tally of aid
Humanitarian aid is entering Gaza in three ways: airdrops, distribution by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and through the United Nations and other aid organizations’ using the newly formed “humanitarian corridors” the Israeli military put in place last week.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which began distributing aid in the enclave in late May, has been widely condemned for the hundreds of people killed, often by Israeli soldiers, near its aid sites, and for its limited distribution.
Last Sunday, GHF distributed around 1 million meals and at least another 1.2 million from Monday to Wednesday, and 1.3 million on Thursday. GHF did not appear to publish the number of meals distributed on Friday, but on Saturday said it released at least 1.7 million meals.
In a population of roughly 2 million people, that averages out to around half a meal to just under a full meal per person per day.
COGAT, the Israeli military branch responsible for overseeing aid into Gaza, said Sunday that a total of 1,200 aid trucks had entered the enclave over the past week and that the same number had been collected by the United Nations and other aid organizations. It said that "hundreds of trucks remain inside Gaza" and were still waiting to be picked up.
Before Israel’s offensive in Gaza began, around 500 trucks carrying aid were entering the enclave daily, according to the British Red Cross and other organizations.
The below graph shows how the amount of aid entering Gaza soared during the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas before it stopped during Israel's blockade, with only a trickle entering in the months after it was lifted.
Asked for the number of trucks allowed into Gaza and collected by humanitarian groups on Friday and Saturday, COGAT did not immediately respond.
While COGAT has shared information about trucks entering Gaza and being collected by aid groups on its social media pages over the past week, it has not updated its online dashboard for aid into Gaza since Monday, despite international focus on the matter.
According to the World Food Program, only about two-thirds of the amount of food the U.N. organization has requested Israeli authorities allow into Gaza had been approved as of Thursday since the Israeli military began tactical pauses.
How Israeli restrictions caused the hunger crisis
The hunger crisis in Gaza drastically worsened in March after Israel imposed a blockade barring the entry of aid into Gaza, in the midst of its ceasefire with Hamas.
Israel lifted the crippling blockade in May, but for months, it has allowed only a limited amount of aid to enter the enclave, most of which has been distributed by the U.S.- and Israel-backed group known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
COGAT did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the accusation that the amount of aid entering Gaza is not enough. It has previously accused humanitarian groups, including the United Nations, of exacerbating hunger by failing to collect and distribute aid to Palestinians fast enough.
However, humanitarian organizations have said efforts to distribute the limited aid they’ve been able to get into Gaza has been hampered by Israeli restrictions. They’ve also emphasized that even after Israel vowed to lift some restrictions last Sunday, the amount of aid entering the enclave remains limited.
Meanwhile WFP has said it needs faster approvals and clearances to move trucks inside Gaza safely, as well as for Israeli military members to adhere to the “established rules of engagement,” including having no armed presence or shooting near humanitarian convoys, food distributions and operations.
What is needed?
“This is not an adequate response,” Jeanette Bailey, the International Rescue Committee’s global practice lead and director of research for nutrition, said in a phone interview on Wednesday.
A gradual entry of aid “here or there,” she said, “is not going to be adequate to prevent us from entering into a full-blown famine where the numbers of deaths go way, way up.”
The world’s leading body on hunger, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said Tuesday that the “worst-case scenario of famine” was now playing out in the Palestinian enclave under Israel’s deadly military offensive. It noted that its warning constituted an alert and was not a formal “famine classification.”
The IPC called for “immediate action” to “end the hostilities” in Gaza and to allow for an “unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response” in a call echoed by humanitarian organizations across the board.
As Palestinians continue to die of malnutrition in the enclave, scores of others have been killed by Israeli forces in other deadly incidents while waiting for or trying to reach aid distribution points, with multiple incidents reported this week.
Since late May, more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food, with 859 deaths “in the vicinity” of GHF sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys,” the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR, said in a news release Thursday.
It said most of the killings were committed by the Israeli military, adding: “While we are aware of the presence of other armed elements in the same areas, we do not have information indicating their involvement in these killings.”
Calling the hunger crisis in Gaza “human-made” and the “direct result of policies imposed by Israel,” it said the continued violence has not only resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians, but also made the aid distribution process more difficult and dangerous.
