People hug as family members and supporters of hostages deliver statements for the release of hostages who were kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, ahead of a possible ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 17, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

An Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal expected to take effect on Sunday (January 19, 2025) has sparked hope for life-saving aid to reach Palestinians, but aid agencies warn of obstacles from destroyed infrastructure, massive need and collapsed law and order.

Announcing the truce, United States President Joe Biden said on Wednesday (January 15, 2025) it would “surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians”.

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called it “a moment of hope and opportunity” but said “we should be under no illusions how tough it will still be to get support to survivors.”

On the ground in the territory, where nearly all 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once, aid workers worry nothing will be enough to meet the need.

“Everything has been destroyed. Children are on the streets. You can’t pinpoint just one priority,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) coordinator Amande Bazerolle told AFP by phone from Gaza.

Speaking from the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, Mohammed al-Khatib, of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said local aid workers haven’t stopped for 15 months even though they themselves are displaced. “Everyone is exhausted,” he said.

“In the hunger-stricken makeshift shelters set up in former schools, bombed-out houses and cemeteries, hundreds of thousands lack even plastic sheeting to protect from winter rains and biting winds,” Gavin Kelleher, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told AFP.

Aid surge ‘not feasible’

Even if the bombs stop, agencies like his must focus on the basics of emergency response, including bringing in “tarpaulins, rope and fixtures to close gaping holes” in buildings.

“At least until we stop seeing children dying of hypothermia,” he said via text message from Gaza.

By last week, hypothermia had killed at least eight people – four newborns, three infants and one adult – according to a health ministry toll used by the World Health Organisation.

On Wednesday (January 15, 2025), Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News reported coordination was underway to reopen the Rafah crossing on the Gaza border. It was one of the main humanitarian entry points but has been closed since Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side in May.

The truce is based on a plan Mr. Biden presented in mid-2024 that foresaw a surge in aid to 600 trucks per day, or more than eight times the December average reported by the United Nations.

The World Food Programme said Thursday (January 16, 2025) it had enough food for one million people “waiting outside Gaza or on its way”.

On the Egyptian side of the border, a source in the Egyptian Red Crescent told AFP up to 1,000 trucks are waiting “for their entry into Gaza”.

But with air strikes continuing to pound the territory, where aid groups and the UN have regularly accused Israel of impeding aid flows – which Israeli denies – aid workers were sceptical.

MSF’s Ms. Bazerolle said the promise of hundreds of trucks a day “is not even feasible technically”.

“Since Rafah has been destroyed, the infrastructure is not there to be able to cope with that level of logistics,” she explained, with bombs audible in the background.

New ‘chapter of suffering’

Aid that does arrive is subject to looting by both armed gangs and desperate civilians.

“The Israelis have targeted the police, so there’s no one to protect the shipments” from looting, which Ms. Bazerolle said will continue “as long as there’s not enough aid entering”.

After more than a year of the “systematic dismantling of the rule of law” in Gaza, NRC’s Kelleher called for “the resumption of a Palestinian civilian police force.”

The situation is especially dire in northern Gaza.

Ms. Bazerolle, who says MSF missions in the area have been targeted by Israel, says the group hopes to send teams to the north “to at least treat patients where they are,” in the absence of hospitals.

According to the WHO, only one hospital, Al-Awda, is partially functioning in the north.

WHO’s Rik Peeperkorn said that, in addition to hospital capacity, his agency will focus on “the very basic things” including water, electricity and waste management systems in Gaza.

Still, the displaced will hope to head back – including Mr. Khatib himself – if the truce holds.

Many, he said, “will return to find their entire neighbourhoods destroyed” and without food or shelter.

“People aren’t even talking about rebuilding their houses, but just the most basic essential needs,” he continued.

“We’re closing one chapter of suffering and opening a new one,” he predicted, before adding: “At least there is some hope of the bloodshed ending.”

A Palestinian boy carries an aid box after storming trucks loaded with humanitarian aid brought in through a new U.S.-built pier, at the beach road of Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Food and medicine for Palestinians in Gaza are piling up in Egypt because the Rafah crossing remains closed and there has been no aid delivered to a U.N. warehouse from a U.S.-built pier for two days, U.N. officials warned on May 20.

Senior U.N. aid official Edem Wosornu said there were insufficient supplies and fuel to provide any meaningful level of support to the people of Gaza as they endure Israel’s military onslaught against Hamas militants.

“We are running out of words to describe what is happening in Gaza. We have described it as a catastrophe, a nightmare, as hell on earth. It is all of these, and worse,” she said.

She told the U.N. Security Council that the closure of Rafah crossing from Egypt had stopped the delivery of at least 82,000 metric tonnes of supplies, while access at Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing was limited due to “hostilities, challenging logistical conditions, and complex coordination procedures.”

Egypt said on Monday that the crossing is closed due to the threat posed to aid work by Israel’s military operation.

Israel is retaliating against Hamas in Gaza – an enclave of 2.3 million people – over a brutal Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian militants. Aid access into southern Gaza has been disrupted since Israel stepped up military operations in Rafah, a move that the U.N. says has forced 900,000 people to flee.

Famine is imminent, warns U.N.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan told the U.N.S.C. that Israel had no other choice but to go after Hamas in Rafah and that the removal of civilians from an active war zone should be supported and not condemned.

“They have moved to a designated humanitarian zone that is being filled with aid. And our hope is for many more civilians to leave Rafah and move out of harm’s way,” he said. “Temporary evacuation is reversible, but the loss of life is not.”

However, Ms. Wosornu described the situation for Palestinians at the new sites as horrendous.

In northern Gaza, where the U.N. warns a famine is imminent, Ms. Wosornu said the Erez crossing had been closed since May 9 and the newly-opened Erez West crossing “is now being used for limited quantities of aid, but now areas in the vicinity of this crossing are also under evacuation orders” by Israel.

Poor flow of aid

Aid deliveries began arriving at a U.S.-built pier on Friday as Israel comes under growing global pressure to allow more supplies into the besieged coastal enclave. The U.N. agreed to assist in coordinating aid distribution from the floating pier, but has remained adamant that deliveries by land are the best way to combat the crisis.

The U.N. said that 10 truckloads of food aid – transported from the pier site by U.N. contractors – were received on May 17 at a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir El Balah in Gaza.

But on May 20, only five truckloads made it to the warehouse after 11 others were cleaned out by Palestinians during the journey through an area that a U.N. official said has been hard to access with humanitarian aid.

“They’ve not seen trucks for a while,” a U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. “They just basically mounted on the trucks and helped themselves to some of the food parcels.”

The U.N. did not receive any aid from the pier on Sunday or Monday. “We need to make sure that the necessary security and logistical arrangements are in place before we proceed,” said the U.N. official.

Aid offloaded at the pier comes via a maritime corridor from Cyprus, where it is first inspected by Israel. The pier operation is estimated to cost $320 million and involve 1,000 U.S. service members.

U.S. officials have said the pier would initially handle 90 trucks a day, but that number could go to 150 trucks. The U.N. has said at least 500 trucks a day are needed to enter Gaza.

The United Nations has also warned of a severe fuel shortage in Gaza. Ms. Wosornu said 6,54,000 litres of fuel had been delivered to Gaza since May 6, one quarter of the fuel allocations it had been receiving.