Aid goods being diverted worries Foreign Minister Wadephul - Diplomat Wadephul expresses worries over potential misdirection of foreign assistance
The delivery of humanitarian aid to the population in the Gaza Strip is facing severe challenges, with the diversion of supplies by Hamas and criminal organizations being a cause for concern for the German government.
In recent months, access to the Gaza Strip has been severely restricted, with Israel controlling all access points and allowing few or no aid deliveries to pass. This has led to a critical shortage of essential supplies, such as food and medical equipment, in the region.
According to reports, border crossings have been reopened only recently, but with severe bottlenecks for trucks delivering aid. Convoys face delays averaging up to 46 hours for permissions, long journeys due to checkpoints and damaged roads, and danger from ongoing hostilities. As a result, only about half of the requested aid truck convoys have been allowed entry, severely limiting the volume of aid compared to the massive needs.
The United Nations and humanitarian agencies have reported a worsening famine and desperate food insecurity in the Gaza Strip. Over 2 million people are dependent on food aid, and malnutrition-related deaths are rising sharply, especially among children. Humanitarian groups like the International Rescue Committee operate under near-total blockades, prepositioning supplies but facing uncertainty about actual delivery timing and security constraints. They rely on local partners to reach vulnerable populations amid dangerous and restricted conditions.
While none of the sources explicitly quantify or detail the diversion of aid supplies by Hamas or criminal groups, such issues have been widely reported in past conflicts as complicating aid transparency and distribution, presumably exacerbating shortages and depriving civilians of vital resources.
The German federal government has been advocating for the necessary measures to be taken to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the population in the Gaza Strip. Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul have been actively engaged in discussions about the situation in Israel and the West Bank, urging for more access to be granted for aid deliveries. The German Armed Forces have begun their aid action, dropping pallets of food and medical equipment over the Gaza Strip, but this is only a small contribution to alleviating the suffering of people in the region.
Despite initial progress in humanitarian aid, the crisis in the Gaza Strip remains unresolved. The price of flour in the Gaza Strip is at an exorbitant 80 euros per kilogram, and only one out of ten power transmission lines is currently functioning. The situation is far from sufficient to alleviate the crisis, and the German government continues to work intensively to enable aid via land routes.
References:
[1] UN OCHA, "Gaza Strip: Humanitarian Situation and Response," 2025. [2] International Rescue Committee, "Gaza Strip: Crisis Update," 2025. [3] World Health Organization, "Gaza Strip: Health Situation Report," 2025. [4] German Federal Foreign Office, "Statement on the Situation in the Gaza Strip," 2025.
- The European Union, through the Commission, has also expressed concern over the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, with the ongoing war-and-conflicts and the diversion of aid supplies by criminal organizations being a part of the general news, politics, and crime-and-justice discussions in the region.
- In the midst of this critical situation, the German government, in addition to advocating for more access to aid deliveries, has initiated its own efforts, such as dropping food and medical supplies, primarily as a part of the political landscape, but also in the realm of war-and-conflicts, general news, and crime-and-justice, hoping to bring relief to the civilians in the Gaza Strip.
