Gaza conditions worse ‘than ever,’ USAID chief says, as Rafah invasion rages

Efforts to deliver aid to Gaza have been hampered by the Israeli push into Rafah, the southern city where over 1 million Palestinians were previously sheltering. A border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, previously used to deliver aid, has been shut since early May, when Israel began ordering civilians to evacuate Rafah and began moving ground forces into the city.

Israel maintains that the last battalions of Hamas are inside Rafah, as well as the remaining hostages held by the militant group. Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security adviser, said Wednesday that destroying Hamas and other militant groups will take “another seven months,” adding that 2024 would be “a year of war.”

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said late Wednesday that the amount of food entering Gaza since the Rafah offensive began has shrunk by around 70 percent. Between April 1 and May 6, a daily average of 176 aid trucks entered the besieged enclave — a number “already insufficient to meet the soaring needs,” according to the agency. Since the May 7 start of the Rafah operation, the daily average has dwindled to 58. The agency said the figures do not include private sector cargo and fuel deliveries.

The figures shared by OCHA differ from those published by Israeli authorities. The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli agency that oversees the Palestinian territories, said 335 humanitarian aid trucks “were transferred to Gaza” just on Wednesday — similar to the daily figures the agency shared before May 7. The U.N. agencies and Israeli authorities have disputed each other’s figures before.

The discrepancy arises from how the trucks are counted: While Israel includes in its tally all those that enter Gaza, aid groups refer only to the aid that is collected and actually distributed.

Israeli restrictions on the movement of humanitarian groups around Gaza and the border crossings, as well as the ongoing fighting, have turned the collection of aid into a lengthy and arduous progress, the United Nations says, making it hard to collect and distribute anything at scale.

OCHA and COGAT did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a U.S. effort to repair a floating pier off the cost of Gaza to enable deliveries of aid by ship — a mission meant to help alleviate the pressure on land border crossings — has faced serious setbacks. Deliveries over the pier were suspended Tuesday after a section broke free in heavy seas and floated away.

On Tuesday, 19 aid agencies said in a statement that “the unpredictable trickle of aid into Gaza has created a mirage of improved access while the humanitarian response is in reality on the verge of collapse.”

The agencies said they feared “an acceleration in deaths from starvation, disease and denied medical assistance, while land and sea entry points remain effectively shut to meaningful humanitarian assistance, most desperately fuel, and attacks in areas sheltering civilians intensify.”

Israel said it achieved “tactical control” over the boundary that separates Gaza and Egypt. An official with the Israel Defense Forces, speaking Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to brief reporters, said that while Israel does not have “boots on the ground” throughout the boundary, known as the Philadelphi corridor, its control means Israel can “cut off” Hamas supplies via underground tunnels in the corridor. This represents a significant success for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly described control of the area as an objective.

Nearly 1 million people have fled Rafah in the past three weeks even though there was “nowhere safe to go,” according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which supports Palestinian refugees. Aid groups also warned that Israel’s offensive in Rafah has made relief efforts nearly impossible; World Central Kitchen announced Wednesday that ongoing attacks have forced it to suspend its main kitchen there.

China’s president said the war in Gaza can’t go on “indefinitely,” and he reiterated his support for a two-state solution. “The war cannot continue indefinitely, justice should not be absent forever, and commitment to the two-state solution” should not be abandoned, Xi Jinping told an assembly of senior officials from Arab League nations on Thursday. The Chinese leader announced $69 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Gaza and pledged $3 million to UNRWA.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israel was responsible for an attack that killed two paramedics in Rafah. The aid organization said Israeli forces bombed an ambulance “despite it bearing the internationally protected Red Crescent emblem.” It said the paramedics, Haitham Tubasi and Suhail Hassouna, “were targeted by the Israeli occupation” late Wednesday “in the Tel Sultan area west of Rafah.” Gaza’s Health Ministry condemned the attack in a statement.

Algeria has put forward a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council calling for a halt to Israel’s military offensive in Rafah and an immediate cease-fire. It also calls for the release of all hostages held by Hamas and an increase in humanitarian aid into the enclave. A vote is expected in the coming days. It is unclear whether the United States will use its veto power to vote down the proposal.

At least 36,224 people have been killed and 81,777 injured in Gaza since the war started, said the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and it says 290 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operations in Gaza.

Lyric Li, Dan Lamothe, Alex Horton, Adela Suliman, Heba Farouk Mahfouz, John Hudson and Susannah George contributed to this report.