Gaza has experienced a sharp increase in aid deliveries, according to the UN, but getting it to the local population is becoming increasingly difficult because of the many layers of approvals Israel requires to let in engine oil and spare parts desperately needed for lorries.
Aid delivered to border crossings in July rose by 33 per cent compared to June, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said at a briefing earlier this month. However, "more approvals are needed to bring engine oil and spare parts into the strip, because all humanitarian operations depend on vehicles and back-up generators that need to be maintained," he added.
The UN and its partners delivered roughly 35,000 tonnes, or 2,600 lorryloads, of aid to Gaza in July, Mr Haq stated, about 60 per cent of which was food, followed by smaller quantities of shelter, water, sanitation, hygiene and health items.
Even before the war, Gaza had a fleet of lorries for transporting goods and humanitarian aid from the border crossings, because of an Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory imposed after Hamas took control in 2007.
According to Nahed Shuheiber, head of the Private Transport Association in Gaza, two-thirds of about 1,200 lorries were either destroyed or damaged in the war, which began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. “During the war, the trucking sector, like many other sectors, was severely affected by Israeli attacks,” Mr Shuheiber said.
“Today, only about 400 trucks remain in Gaza. Of these, approximately 110 have been forced out of service over the past few months because of the shortage of engine oil, high fuel prices and the lack of spare parts and replacement tyres,” he told The National.
The shortages have also pushed up operating costs, with the price of engine oil for a single lorry rising from 450 Israeli shekels ($150) before the war to 100,000 shekels. “This is a cost that trucking companies simply can’t afford,” Mr Shuheiber said.
Lifeline for Gaza
Humanitarian organisations rely on local transport companies to move aid from Gaza’s crossings to their warehouses, and then to distribution centres across the enclave.
“The breakdown of trucks has had a clear impact on the delivery of food aid in Gaza in particular, and we are now facing significant difficulties transporting humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” an employee at the World Food Programme’s office in Deir Al Balah, central Gaza, told The National.
“Every month, dozens of truckloads are either dropped from the planned delivery schedule or delayed because of the shortage of functioning trucks and repeated breakdowns,” he said. “For example, if 800 truckloads are scheduled to enter in a particular month, the trucking crisis could result in the actual number falling to around 600.”
Three lorries carrying aid recently broke down within the same week while travelling to areas far from the warehouses, according to humanitarian officials in Gaza.
Rami Abdu, chairman of the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, accused Israel of enacting “an integrated policy aimed at dismantling the supply chain" of aid. He said that preventing the entry of the materials needed to operate lorries "is disrupting the primary means of transporting food, medicine and fuel to Gaza’s population".
The situation has also affected the livelihoods of Gaza's lorry drivers.
“Trucks are a lifeline for Gaza, transporting essential goods and aid while also providing jobs for me and dozens of other drivers,” said Ahmed Tafesh, a resident of Gaza city, who has been driving lorries for 20 years.
However, Mr Tafesh, 45, told The National he had been out of work for three months. “I lost my job because of the war, the breakdown of the trucks and Israel’s restriction on the entry of engine oils and spare parts,” he said.
