Aid Groups Poised to Provide Gaza Relief After Biden Deal Opens Border Crossings

Relief groups say they stand ready to address a crisis in Gaza that they fear will have a long-term impact on residents’ health after the Biden administration reached an agreement with Israel that will allow some humanitarian aid into the territory.

The announcement of the agreement could not have come at a more crucial time for the dozens of emergency relief organizations working on the ground, many of which have reported the situation is becoming increasingly dire as supplies of food, water, medicine and fuel are quickly running out, with signs pointing to a large-scale humanitarian crisis.

Ricardo Pires, a spokesman for UNICEF, says his organization urgently needs access to Gaza to facilitate the movement of supplies and relief workers.

“Right now this is not yet happening – children need urgent health services, safe and sustained access to water, food, health, and fuel, which is necessary to enable those essential services,” he says. “We are aware that the needs are quickly outpacing the available resources, hence any immediate or long-term help is critical.”

President Joe Biden on Wednesday pledged $100 million in humanitarian aid to Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank in an effort to support the more than 1 million people he said have been displaced and affected since the war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas – a U.S-designated terrorist organization – launched a sudden and brutal attack, killing hundreds of civilians among 1,300 dead in Israel. In response, Israel sealed border crossings with Gaza as it began targeting Hamas positions.

Biden said that as part of that relief effort he also asked the Israeli Cabinet to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza and that Israel and Egypt have both agreed to open border crossings to allow assistance to begin moving.

Aid to Gaza was expected to begin arriving as early as Friday, with Egypt agreeing to initially allow up to 20 trucks with supplies through the border crossing at Rafah, located on Gaza’s southern border. However, reporting by The New York Times on Friday suggested disagreements about several issues – including who would inspect aid shipments for weapons – would likely push back the timeline.

More than 3,700 Gazans have reportedly been killed since Oct. 7, according to a statement released Thursday by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, with more than 12,000 people injured. The agency reports hospitals in Gaza are over full bed capacity and that power outages and fuel shortages are putting them all at risk of being forced into work stoppages.

Pires says UNICEF has already released its supplies that were “prepositioned” in Gaza before the conflict, including a month’s worth of hospital medical supplies for at least 1,600 trauma patients, water treatment reagents to produce drinking water at a desalination plant, 50,000 liters of fuel to help maintain operations at water and sanitation facilities, money for 1,000 “extremely vulnerable” households to get essential needs and 500 recreational kits for children.

Pires says UNICEF currently has amassed supplies in Egypt that are ready for delivery into Gaza once the Rafah crossing – the sole border crossing with Egypt – reopens. Supplies include 2,000 dignity kits for at least 12,000 people, which contain hygiene and sanitary products for women and girls, four mobile latrines, 45,000 packages of bottle water for an estimated 270,000 people, four emergency medicine health kits, 25 emergency health consumable kits to provide for an estimated 195,000 people for one month, recreational kits, tents, blankets and a one-month supply of desalination chemicals to provide drinking water for about 75,000 individuals.

Pires says UNICEF and its partners will be able to mobilize quickly once they are allowed to start delivering supplies, but much depends on how rapidly the roads to and from Gaza can be repaired after sustaining damage from bombardments.

“It’s uncertain, but our hope is that we can get there relatively fast,” Pires says.

Biden told reporters the U.S. plans to coordinate with the Egyptian government to repair the roads into Gaza.

“They’re going to patch the road – they have to fill in potholes to get these trucks through, and we expect that will take about eight hours tomorrow,” he said Wednesday. “So there may be nothing rolling through probably until Friday.”

Limited access to medical care coupled with shortages of essential items since the beginning of the conflict has already created health and environmental hazards. The shutdown of power and sewage plant facilities have led to the accumulation of wastewater on the streets that increases the risk of contamination and leads to outbreaks of waterborne diseases like cholera, says Meredith Slater, director of development for ActionAid USA, the U.S. branch for ActionAid International, a humanitarian aid network that has worked with local primary health care providers in Gaza since 2007 on delivering essential health services.

“Water supplies are reaching a life-threatening low across Gaza amidst the sustained blockade,” Slater says. “A lack of water and the threat of waterborne disease could cause a health catastrophe for hundreds of thousands of people.”

Slater says the organization currently has staff members in Egypt working to procure supplies, including food and medical supplies and female hygiene products. As a part of that effort, Slater says the organization launched an emergency fund on Oct. 10 to purchase more supplies for delivery into Gaza once Egypt allows aid to cross the border.

Throughout the region, the escalating violence has sparked a rapid mobilization effort to help civilians on both sides of the conflict, with a number of Jewish humanitarian aid organizations raising funds to provide partners on the ground in Israel with needed supplies to address the short-term and long-term needs of civilians there.

Niv Elis, spokesman for the Jewish Federations of America, says the organization has collected nearly $400 million in donations since the beginning of the conflict as part of a campaign to raise $500 million. So far, more than $30 million has been allocated to 20 humanitarian groups in Israel that Elis says are helping with the effort to rebuild infrastructure and provide support for victims.

As the situation on the ground changes, Elis says it will be important for aid groups to remain flexible enough to address needs and challenges as they arise.

“We very much try to regularly assess what the changing needs are and make sure that the funds are being spent in a way that has the greatest impact,” Elis says.