The foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, Italy and the United Kingdom have urged Israel to "stop the delays now" and allow 150,000 tents and other supplies into Gaza, in a joint statement published by the UK government on Sunday evening.
The statement adds diplomatic pressure on Israel a week after the first storm of the winter flooded displacement camps in the territory. It comes three days after the UK delivered a wider joint statement at the United Nations on humanitarian access. The tents figure matches one the UN has used publicly since early last week, and the text announces no new funding or measures.
The four ministers said the humanitarian situation was "dire" and that the recent floods had brought further suffering.
"Yet 150,000 tents and other vital supplies are being held at the border and prevented from entering Gaza," they said.
They described the situation as "entirely reversible" and said "there is still time to act before the winter fully sets in".
"So we today urge the Government of Israel to stop the delays now and allow immediate, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access throughout Gaza. The crossings must be opened, and the tents allowed in. Dual-use items necessary for humanitarian operations and early recovery must be granted entry before it is too late," the statement said. Dual-use items are goods judged to have a possible military as well as civilian purpose.
The ministers also said all parties must implement the Comprehensive Plan for Gaza, "respecting the ceasefire and their obligations under international humanitarian law, and allowing aid to reach the people who need it". The same text has been published by the office of Penny Wong, Australia's foreign minister.
The statement does not say which crossings are affected, how long the supplies have been held or where the 150,000 figure comes from. Nor does it say why these four governments issued it.
The UN has said more than 150,000 tents bought by humanitarian partners and member states are waiting outside Gaza for Israeli permission to enter. Farhan Haq, the UN deputy spokesperson, told a briefing on 11 November that 117,000 of them were held by the Egyptian Relief Committee in El Arish, on the Egyptian side of the border.
"Ultimately, we need the Israeli authorities to cooperate with giving the permissions so that we can bring those tents in," Mr Haq said.
Israel's most recent public account of winter aid predates the ministers' statement. COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that coordinates civilian affairs in Gaza, has said more than 93,000 tents and over 8,600 trucks of winter supplies have entered the territory under its winterisation plan, which Israeli media report began in September. The figures have not been independently verified. They count supplies that have entered Gaza, not those waiting outside.
The storm began late on 6 November. The UN humanitarian office, OCHA, estimates that about 1.4 million people, around 65 per cent of Gaza's population, are living in tents or makeshift shelters. UN News, citing OCHA and local authorities, reported that three children and two women were killed when a sand dune collapsed onto tents west of Deir al-Balah.
Gaza's Government Media Office, which is run by Hamas, said 70,000 tents were flooded. That figure has not been independently verified.
"The devastating impact of the latest rainstorm in Gaza was preventable," the UN Humanitarian Country Team for the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a statement.
Israel held elections on 27 October and a new government is being formed. Tom Fletcher, the UN humanitarian chief, said on 11 November that waiting for that process to finish was "not an acceptable excuse" for delaying winter supplies.
On 12 November Sarah MacIntosh, the UK's ambassador to the UN, delivered a joint statement calling on Israel's incoming government to expand humanitarian and medical access into Gaza.
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