(January 14 2009) — Save the Children today estimated that only an eighth of the lifesaving supplies of food and medicines needed by the Gazan population have crossed into the besieged territory since the Israeli military operation began December 27.

The international aid agency branded the figure “pitiful.”

Furthermore, Save the Children said that the daily three-hour ceasefire designed to allow aid agencies to deliver what little aid was available in Gaza was inadequate, severely hampering humanitarian efforts.

The Israeli government said that by the morning of January 12, it had allowed 900 aid trucks to cross into Gaza since the conflict began. According to Save the Children estimates, at least 7,200 trucks should have been allowed through to ensure the population had the bare minimum of food, fuel and medicine.

“If only 900 trucks have come in, for every truck the Israeli government says it has allowed through, another seven are needed,” said Annie Foster, Save the Children’s team leader for the emergency response. “More than a million people in Gaza — over half of them children — relied on aid trucked before the crisis. So far the amount entering the area is nowhere near what is needed. Indeed, it is pitiful.”

Foster added that even if sufficient aid were getting through, the daily three-hour ceasefire for delivering the aid was inadequate.

"Three hours a day is simply not enough time to allow us to conduct an aid operation on the scale that is needed. Thousands of children and families desperately need our help, and we can only reach them if we are allowed to operate more freely,” she said.

Save the Children has managed to deliver food aid to nearly 20,000 people, providing them with rations for two weeks. The aid distribution has included deliveries using donkey carts and small cars, as truck drivers were willing to deliver the aid for fear of violence. Save the Children also has delivered medical supplies to hospitals.

The agency has been providing humanitarian assistance to vulnerable families in the north and south of Gaza, during and outside of the scheduled lulls in fighting each day.

Save the Children, which has been working in Gaza for 30 years, is calling for a peaceful solution to the current crisis that endangers the lives of nearly every child in Gaza, and the lives of Israeli children in areas subject to attacks. Save the Children is calling for a cessation of hostilities by all parties including air and ground assaults from Israel and rocket attacks from Gaza. The agency is seeking free access for humanitarian assistance to allow aid agencies to provide much-needed relief to vulnerable children.