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<h1 class="gmail-single_title">UN official: 6,000 aid trucks at Gaza\u2019s borders as current mechanism \u201ccompletely failing\u201d</h1>
<p class="gmail-single_date">Wednesday 16-July-2025 - <font size="1"><a href="https://english.palinfo.com/news/2025/07/16/343369/">https://english.palinfo.com/news/2025/07/16/343369/</a></font></p>
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<p>GAZA, (PIC)</p>
<p>Juliette Touma, Director of Communications and Media at the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), affirmed
that the current mechanism for distributing relief aid in Gaza \u201cis not
working at all,\u201d calling for a return to the previous system that
allowed hundreds of trucks carrying food and essential supplies to enter
daily.</p>
<p>Touma stressed that UNRWA continues to provide vital services to
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank despite Israeli obstructions,
including blocking entry visas for international staff. She said that
around 6,000 trucks are currently stuck at Gaza\u2019s borders.</p>
<p>Touma also noted that today\u2019s situation in Gaza is incomparable to
what it was before the war, destruction is widespread, security is
absent, and residents\u2019 needs far exceed just food, according to an
interview with Al Jazeera.</p>
<p>Juliette Touma was appointed as UNRWA\u2019s Director of Communications
and Media in 2022, after holding various roles over 20 years, including
as spokesperson for the UN mission in Syria during the peak of the
conflict there, Head of Communications for the UN Development Program in
Iraq, and having visited Gaza multiple times before and during the
current war, according to UNRWA\u2019s website.</p>
<p><strong>Failure of the \u201cGaza Humanitarian Foundation\u201d</strong></p>
<p>Touma explained that the new food distribution system, overseen by
the \u201cGaza Humanitarian Foundation,\u201d \u201cis not working at all,\u201d providing
only four distribution points at best, compared to over 400 points
previously operated by UNRWA across Gaza before the war.</p>
<p>The \u201cGaza Humanitarian Foundation\u201d is a US-based company
headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, founded in February 2025. Reports
suggest its creation was an Israeli idea developed since the beginning
of Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza in 2023, aimed at \u201cundermining Hamas\u2019s
control and preventing aid from reaching it,\u201d confining aid to
Israeli-controlled areas, and disconnecting Gazans from Hamas
financially and materially, according to Israel\u2019s Yedioth Ahronoth
newspaper.</p>
<p>Touma \u2014 who holds a master\u2019s degree in media and communications from
the University of London, said life in Gaza before the war, despite over
15 years of blockade, was more adaptable: people could fish, farm, and
UNRWA was supporting one million people with food aid.</p>
<p>Today, however, destruction is massive, people have been displaced
repeatedly, even UNRWA shelters can no longer accommodate the displaced,
and the entire food security system has collapsed.</p>
<p>Touma pointed out that Gazans now need more than just food; they
require security, medicines, hygiene items, fuel, clean water, and child
nutrition supplies.</p>
<p><strong>UNRWA Never Stopped Working</strong></p>
<p>When asked about claims that UNRWA ceased operations in Gaza, Touma
emphasized that UNRWA never stopped working there despite all
circumstances, with over 10,000 Palestinian staff continuing to provide
services.</p>
<p>Touma, who previously worked with civil society organizations in
culture, arts, and music, said UNRWA health teams in Gaza are offering
around 15,000 consultations daily, while hundreds of thousands visit
UNRWA clinics in the West Bank.</p>
<p>She also revealed that one in every ten children assessed in UNRWA
clinics in Gaza suffers from malnutrition and that teams continue
screening children, providing support, managing shelters for displaced
families, supplying clean water for half of Gaza\u2019s population, and
continuously removing sewage and waste.</p>
<p>Touma noted that the academic year recently concluded in the West
Bank, with about 40,000 students completing their studies at UNRWA
schools despite current conditions.</p>
<p>But a major challenge facing UNRWA today is Israel\u2019s refusal to issue
entry visas for its international staff, preventing them from
supporting their Palestinian colleagues and enhancing their ability to
continue working under ongoing challenges, Touma said.</p>
<p><strong>6,000 Trucks Await Entry</strong></p>
<p>Since October 2023, Israel has intensified its efforts to dismantle
UNRWA\u2019s role, culminating in the Knesset voting overwhelmingly at the
end of October to pass a law banning UNRWA from operating in occupied
Palestinian territories, revoking its privileges and diplomatic
immunity, and ordering the evacuation of its international staff from
East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank \u2014 an unprecedented move against
the UN\u2019s largest humanitarian organization serving over 6 million
Palestinian refugees.</p>
<p>Touma highlighted that around 6,000 trucks loaded with medicines,
food, and essential supplies are stuck just steps away from Gaza, in
Egypt and Jordan, urging their immediate entry to save lives.</p>
<p>Despite the aid piling up at Gaza\u2019s borders, nearly one million
children urgently need assistance, she said. Touma called for resuming
aid flows as they were before the war and during ceasefires, with the
same volume, between 500 and 600 trucks per day under UN supervision,
primarily UNRWA.</p>
<p>In concluding her remarks to Al Jazeera, Touma stressed that UNRWA
remains the largest humanitarian organization operating in Gaza and
capable of managing relief operations if allowed to work, affirming that
lifting the blockade and restoring the humanitarian system are
essential to saving Gaza\u2019s residents and children.</p>
<p>These statements come amid an ongoing Israeli assault approaching two
years, during which most UN agencies have ceased humanitarian work in
Gaza. Recently, a US proposal to task the \u201cGaza Humanitarian Foundation\u201d
with managing aid distribution has faced widespread skepticism from
international organizations, citing its lack of experience and
operational capacity compared to UNRWA\u2019s well-established historic role
in the Strip.</p>
<p>The humanitarian system in Gaza faces unprecedented challenges amid
the continued blockade and the prevention of tens of thousands of tons
of aid and medical supplies from entering, as international calls
persist for the resumption of UN operations, an immediate end to the
war, and the facilitation of sustained, orderly flows of humanitarian
and commercial aid into Gaza.</p>
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