By Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israel has taken significant steps in recent weeks to enable aid to Gaza, the U.S. special envoy for humanitarian affairs said on Tuesday, but much work remains to be done as the enclave risks famine he is very tall.
David Satterfield declined to say whether Washington was satisfied with Israel’s moves, weeks after US President Joe Biden called for action to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying conditions could be placed on US support for the close ally Israel if it had not implemented a series of “specific, concrete and measurable steps”.
“Israel has made significant steps these last two and a half weeks,” Satterfield told reporters. “There is still a lot of work to do. But progress has been made.”
The risk of famine across war-torn Gaza, especially in the north, is “very high”, he said, calling for more to be done to get aid to those in need in that part of the small, densely populated Palestinian territory.
The United Nations has long complained about obstacles in getting aid and distributing it across Gaza in the six months since Israel began an air and ground offensive against Hamas, the Islamic militant group in power in Gaza.
Israel’s military campaign has reduced much of the territory of 2.3 million people into a wasteland with an ongoing humanitarian disaster since October, when Hamas unleashed war by sweeping into southern Israel.
The head of the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said on Tuesday that the average daily number of trucks entering Gaza in April was 200 and that there was a peak on Monday of 316.
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“We have always emphasized that we are in a man-made situation that can only be addressed with political will and decisions, and the last few days show that this is possible,” he told reporters. “The more we support this, the more we will have a positive impact.”
There is now also a focus on waste collection, he added, especially in southern Gaza, in an effort to avoid epidemics as warmer weather approaches.
UNRWA has been described by senior UN officials as the backbone of aid operations in Gaza. But earlier this year, Israel accused 12 UNRWA staff members of taking part in the October 7 Hamas-led attacks that sparked the Gaza war. Israel’s accusations led 16 countries to suspend or suspend $450 million in funding to UNRWA.
Lazzarini said UNRWA currently has enough funds to pay for operations until June. However, funding from the United States – UNRWA’s largest donor with $300-400 million per year – has been suspended by the US Congress until at least March 2025.
“If it is a long-lasting suspension, it will have a sustainable impact on the agency. If it is a temporary suspension, I believe we can find a temporary solution with the intervention of some donors,” Lazzarini said.
He also said there had been “extraordinary grassroots solidarity” with UNRWA, which had raised $100 million from online public donations in the past six months.