( Middle East Monitor ) – More than 6,000 aid trucks carrying essential food and supplies are stuck in Jordan and Egypt, unable to reach Gaza due to Israeli restrictions, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned Saturday, Anadolu reports.
“At UNRWA, we have the equivalent of 6,000 trucks in Jordan & Egypt waiting for the green light to get into Gaza,” said agency chief Philippe Lazzarini.
Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) posted on “X” on Saturday, :
- “#Gaza: airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians.
It is a distraction & screensmoke.
A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will.
Lift the siege, open the gates & guarantee safe movements + dignified access to people in need.
Allow the U.N. including @UNRWA & our partners to operate at scale & without bureaucratic or political hurdles.
At UNRWA, we have the equivalent of 6,000 trucks in Jordan & Egypt waiting for the green light to get into Gaza.
Driving aid through is much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper & safer. It’s more dignified for the people of #Gaza.
Finally, airdrops will not prevent aid diversion, principled humanitarian assistance will. It reaches those in need.
The latest USAID report confirms that there is no “so called” systemic diversion of aid provided by the humanitarian community in Gaza.”
That is, he was arguing that “airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians,” noting that “driving aid through is much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper & safer. It’s more dignified for the people of #Gaza.”
Lazzarini stressed that the only way to address Gaza’s “manmade hunger” crisis is through “political will.”
“Lift the siege, open the gates & guarantee safe movements + dignified access to people in need,” he added.
He also pushed back against accusations of aid diversion, citing a recent report confirming no “systemic” misuse of humanitarian aid provided in Gaza.
An unreported US Agency for International Development (USAID) study examined 156 cases of lost or stolen aid between October 2023 and May 2025, and found no evidence of the Palestinian group Hamas benefiting from US-supplied aid.
The report contradicts claims by Israel and the US, which have been used to justify a controversial new armed private aid operation, which has resulted in more than 1,000 deaths among starving aid-seekers.
“Allow the UN including @UNRWA & our partners to operate at scale & without bureaucratic or political hurdles,” the official said.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing over 59,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
File photo of Gaza, July 31, 2024, by Emad El Byed on Unsplash
Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) had said on Friday at “X”:
- #Gaza : A constructed & deliberate mass starvation. Today, more children died, their bodies emaciated by hunger.
The flawed distribution system (GHF) is not designed to address the humanitarian crisis.
It’s serving military & political objectives. It’s cruel as it takes more lives than it saves lives.
Israel controls all aspects of humanitarian access, whether outside or within #Gaza.
Airdrops are the most expensive & inefficient way to deliver aid. It is a distraction to the inaction.
When bureaucratic & political hurdles are lifted, the humanitarian community has demonstrated it can deliver assistance at scale, in a dignified way, without diversion.
During the ceasefire fire in earlier this year, we succeeded to reverse the deepening hunger.
Today, @UNRWA alone has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks of food & medical assistance stuck in Egypt & Jordan.
The unfolding famine can only be reversed by a political will.
Make “never again” a reality.
If we fail the Palestinians in Gaza, others are likely to be failed too in the future.
Let’s not set a dangerous and irreversible precedent.”
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