How Israel’s Rafah Operation Threatens Gaza’s Critical Aid Pipeline

Gaza’s 2 million people depend on humanitarian aid, nearly all of which passes through two crossings in the south of the enclave. Israel has told people to leave the area near the crossings — Kerem Shalom and the Rafah crossing — ahead of a possible military operation there. Both entry points are now in the crossfire of the war between Hamas and Israel, which has closed both crossings at different times in the past week, disrupting the flow of food, medicine and fuel to the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military seized control of the Rafah crossing on May 7, closing it to additional aid shipments, and closed Kerem Shalom after a May 5 Hamas rocket attack killed four soldiers. Israel said on May 8 it had reopened Kerem Shalom for aid, but that it’s being targeted by Hamas rocket fire from the Rafah area on a regular basis. The UN says it’s too dangerous for its staff and trucks to reach the crossing.

This is what has entered Gaza since the war began in October:

Roughly 200 aid trucks entered Gaza per day in April. That’s down from the daily prewar average that ranges from 500 to 700 commercial and humanitarian trucks a day, according to United Nations estimates. A UN database records the passage of each truck and its cargo through these crossings. The data stops on May 5, the day Kerem Shalom crossing was closed and a day before people were told by the Israeli military to leave eastern Rafah.

All crossings into Gaza were closed after Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union, attacked Israel and killed 1,200 and abducted about 250 people on Oct. 7.

Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive has killed almost 35,000 Palestinians, including 9,500 women and 14,500 children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures.

A “full-blown famine” has now developed in parts of northern Gaza and is “moving its way south,” Cindy McCain, director of the UN’s World Food Programme, told NBC News in an interview for “Meet the Press.”

The Rafah crossing first reopened on Oct. 21, and Kerem Shalom reopened on Dec. 17, after international pressure on Israel to allow more aid into Gaza. The Israeli seizure of the Rafah crossing marks the first time Israel has controlled the Egyptian-Gaza border area since it pulled out of the strip in 2005.

Israel says aid is getting into Gaza in other ways. Limited shipments from the World Food Programme entered through the Erez crossing in mid-April, according to a report by the United States Agency for International Development. The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a branch of the Israeli military which works with Palestinian Authority officials, reported that 60 aid trucks entered via Erez on May 7.

Gate 96, which connects to an Israeli-built military road bisecting the Gaza Strip, began a trial initiative with six trucks on March 12, according to USAID. Since then, there have been no public reports of aid through the gate. A floating pier built by the US military has been completed and is awaiting deployment to Gaza’s coast, the US Department of Defense said May 7.

But even as other crossings have opened, nearly all humanitarian aid has so far entered through the southern crossings. According to COGAT, 27,608 trucks have entered Gaza across all border crossings between the start of the war in October and May 7. UN tallies show more than 90% of that entered via the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings.

Trucks are sometimes turned around at the southern crossings because of the contents of their cargo. In March, the Palestine Logistics Cluster, a group of humanitarian organizations working to deliver aid to Gaza, reported that 55% of trucks that arrived at Kerem Shalom were able to pass through the checkpoint.

Rafah is a crucial crossing: It is the only place through which Palestinians have been medically evacuated into Egypt for treatment, according to the WHO, and the only crossing through which the UN imports fuel, according to the UN database.

Gaza needs fuel to run generators and operate vehicles. Generators power wells, ovens at bakeries and hot meals at shelters, according to fuel requests recorded by the UN aid database.

Since the beginning of the war, more than 4,000 people have been medically evacuated via the Rafah crossing as of April 30, according to the World Health Organization. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported via the UN on Tuesday that 140 Palestinians needing medical treatment and their companions were not able to be transported because of the Rafah closure.

Trucks regularly queue for more than three kilometers (two miles) outside the Rafah crossing when it’s open. Satellite imagery from May 5, the last day it was open, shows the line of trucks. The following day, Israel said it was conducting targeted strikes in the area and closed the crossing. Imagery on May 7 shows the area around the Rafah crossing devoid of activity and no trucks are visible on the road from the Kerem Shalom checkpoint into Rafah.

Bloomberg identified structures in Rafah near the crossing that showed new damage between May 5 and May 7. In the same area, damage can be seen near tents around the buildings.

The US paused a delivery of about 3,500 bombs to Israel on Wednesday, and President Joe Biden said he would halt additional weapons if Israel proceeded with a ground invasion of Rafah.

On Thursday, UNRWA reported it was down to almost no fuel and were rationing what remains. The UN, which includes the UNRWA and other UN agencies, needs 200,000 liters (about 53,000 gallons) of diesel fuel daily.

UN officials visited the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings on Wednesday, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the secretary-general, reported during the UN daily briefing.

“The area is highly militarized, making it impossible for organizations to distribute at the scale they previously did,” Haq said.