The non-governmental organization Oxfam accuses Israel of “deliberately” preventing humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip, be it food, or medical and pharmaceutical materials, which it says is a violation of international humanitarian law.

“Despite its responsibilities as an occupying power, Israel’s policies and practices continue to obstruct and undermine, systematically and deliberately, any major international humanitarian response to the Gaza Strip,” the NGO report said.

In particular, the NGO denounces the “unreasonably ineffective” inspection protocols for aid cargoes, which create delays of “twenty days on average” for the trucks to enter the Palestinian enclave, and even “the attacks against the personnel of humanitarian organizations, aid structures and convoys with humanitarian aid”.

It also denounces the “routine” and “arbitrary” exclusion of various “dual-use” items, material that could (also) be used for military purposes.

The NGO explains that bags of water and water analysis kits were rejected “without reason” in one of its shipments, before they were later approved.

Equipment that is absolutely necessary for the staff’s work, such as means of communication, protection or generators for the operation of facilities, are also “restricted”.

Oxfam also points to “access restrictions” for aid workers, particularly in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

According to the NGO’s figures, just 2,874 trucks entered the enclave in February, in other words “only 20% of the daily aid” that arrived there before October 7.

Israel launched a wide-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an unprecedented attack by Hamas on its territory on October 7, which killed more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.

Since then, at least 31,600 people have died in the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas’ health ministry, while 1.7 million residents out of a total population of 2.4 million have been forcibly displaced, according to the UN.

“The conditions we have seen in Gaza are worse than catastrophic,” Oxfam underlined, while the Palestinian enclave is on the brink of generalized famine.

In order for more aid to arrive, parcels have been airdropped, while the international community is also establishing a sea corridor for food deliveries.