By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA (Reuters) -The Norwegian Refugee Council told Reuters on Tuesday its aid stocks are completely depleted in Gaza, with some of its staff now starving, and accused Israel of paralysing its work.
“Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left,” Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the council told Reuters in an interview via video link from Oslo.
The council’s comments echo those made earlier on Tuesday by the head of the Palestinian refugee agency, who said UNRWA’s staff were fainting on the job from hunger and exhaustion.
The NRC says that for the last 145 days it has not been able to get its hundreds of truckloads containing tents, water, sanitation, food and education materials into Gaza.
COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, and Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel’s military has previously told Reuters that it is working to facilitate aid entry in coordination with the international community.
It has denied accusations it is preventing aid from reaching Gaza and has accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of stealing food, which Hamas denies.
“Hundreds of truckloads have been sitting in warehouses or in Egypt or elsewhere, and costing our Western European donors a lot of money, but they are blocked from coming in… That’s why we are so angry. Because our job is to help,” Egeland said.
“Israel is not yielding. They just want to paralyse our work,” he added.
The NRC has 64 Palestinian and two international staff on the ground in Gaza. On Sunday the NRC had to move 33 of its staff out of Deir al Balah following Israeli evacuation warnings.
The NRC said its supplies of safe drinking water, which have reached 100,000 people in central and northern parts of Gaza in recent weeks, are also running out, as fuel availability to run desalination plants reaches its limit.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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