By Canadian Press

Canadian trapped in Gaza says first load of aid barely helping humanitarian crisis

Oct 21, 2023 | 12:55 PM

A Canadian man trapped in Gaza says the first truckloads of aid let into the enclave today since the latest Israel-Hamas war began two weeks ago will barely make a dent to the humanitarian crisis Palestinians are experiencing all around him.

Mahmoud Nasser, a 30-year-old who relocated to Gaza City from Mississauga, Ont., in 2021 to take care of his aging father, is among the people in the Palestinian territory under bombardment from Israeli airstrikes since Hamas’ bloody and shocking rampage in southern Israel two weeks ago.

While sheltering with 50 others in the southern city of Khan Yunis, Nasser says in a phone interview the aid that trickled into Gaza on Saturday for the first time since Israel sealed the region off from food, water and electricity does very little to help people who are already starving and desperately hunting for safe drinking water.

He says he is privileged enough to get a bottle of water a day but expects to see many people who are still not dead from the constant airstrikes to die from starvation and dehydration soon if more aid doesn’t come through.

On Saturday, just 20 trucks were allowed in through the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, an amount aid workers agreed was insufficient to help Palestinians, about one million of whom have fled their homes and have been rationing food and drinking dirty water.

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Israel was still launching waves of airstrikes across Gaza as Palestinian militants fire rockets into Israel.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2023.

The Canadian Press