A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The health care system in Gaza has collapsed after two years of war, and aid groups say Israel is cracking down even more on the lifesaving supplies it allows in. NPR's Jane Arraf has more.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: After two years of Israeli attacks that have destroyed or damaged most hospitals and clinics, one of Gaza's biggest medical aid providers says conditions are desperate. This is Amande Bazerolle, Gaza emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF.
AMANDE BAZEROLLE: Not only there's not enough aid entering, but there's more and more people who are wounded and sick and suffering from malnutrition.
ARRAF: Israel, since the start of the war, has restricted food and medicine, saying without evidence that Hamas is stealing it. Shortages worsened in July after Israel struck a warehouse of the U.N.'s World Health Organization. The WHO says it destroyed most of their medical supplies. Bazerolle says it was catastrophic.
BAZEROLLE: Adding to all of that, that's put a big stretch on the health system there is already. We are beyond on the verge of collapse. We are in the collapse at the moment.
ARRAF: The Israeli military said it was targeting militants. Recently, Israel has announced new measures. Jordan, a major aid quarter to Gaza, says Israel is now charging customs fees for aid trucks in transit en route to Gaza. This is Communications Minister Mohammad Al-Momani.
MOHAMMAD AL-MOMANI: Yes, indeed, they do ask the trucks coming from Jordan to pay. They pay between 300 and $400 per truck.
ARRAF: Israel did not respond to requests for comment about why it had begun charging the fees. Momani says Jordanian aid trucks going through Israel are routinely attacked by Israeli settlers trying to block aid, turning what is normally a three-hour drive to Gaza into an up to 36-hour ordeal.
AL-MOMANI: They throw rocks on them and sharp objects under the wheels of the trucks, and when the trucks are moving, actually, they continue to face different hurdles and obstacles.
ARRAF: The World Food Programme says at least 600 truckloads a day of aid are needed to keep more people from starving. Israel says it allows in 300 to 400 trucks a day but acknowledges that it counts commercial trucks importing food as aid. After two years of war, few Gazans can afford to buy food in the markets. Famine took hold in Gaza last month, gripping a territory where health authorities say Israeli attacks have killed more than 63,000 people and wounded at least 160,000, a war that began with a Hamas attack in Israel nearly two years ago that Israel says killed about 1,200 people. There's a new obstacle looming - Israel is demanding that aid groups re-register with them this month, supplying personal details for all international and local staff and their families. MSF, like most other groups, have refused.
BAZEROLLE: In any other country, never we have been asked those kind of information. We are not informed how they're going to be used.
ARRAF: She said with so many health care workers killed by Israel - 1,500 of them, according to Gaza health officials - they fear Israel could use the data to target them. It's not just MSF. More than 100 aid groups said in a statement it would be unsafe and against humanitarian law to comply. The U.N. says the requirements would also allow Israel to reject groups that criticize Israeli policy. Israel says aid groups objecting to the requirements could be tied to Hamas. And it says if they don't comply, it will shut them down.
Jane Arraf, NPR News, Amman.
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