People in Gaza are starving. Why is it so hard to get aid to them?
AMMAN, Jordan — With famine already preying on some of Gaza's 2.3 million people and little sign of a breakthrough in negotiations between Israel and Hamas, world governments and humanitarian groups have focused on getting more aid into the enclave.
The supplies are available, aid groups say. But roadblocks and other difficulties slow their delivery at nearly every turn. Airdrops have killed people waiting for life-sustaining supplies, trucks have been held up or turned away at the only two entry points, and people have been killed by Israeli gunfire or in stampedes — with conflicting versions of what happened following each time — at distribution points.
The situation led the top United Nations court on Thursday to order Israel to open more land crossings into Gaza.
Inside Gaza, the central problem remains: how to deliver humanitarian aid to everywhere it is needed.
What's the situation in Gaza?
More than five months into the war in Gaza, water, food, medicines, fuel and nearly every other essential are in short supply.
Before the war, the enclave was long subject to a blockade from Israel and Egypt, but some 500 trucks, including commercial goods and aid, would enter Gaza every day.
After the that and saw around 250 taken hostage, the bombardment of Gaza began and Israel sealed the border. The number of trucks carrying aid into Gaza dropped to under 100 per day, with most commercial goods blocked.
