Israel has only allowed six small machines to remove rubble from the Gaza Strip while preventing the entry of hundreds more that are desperately needed, according to Ismail al-Thawabta, director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, Al Jazeera reports.

Thawabteh told the Anadolu news agency that “the Gaza Strip needs 500 heavy equipment units, including bulldozers, excavators, cranes, and others”.

He stressed that Gaza is experiencing “a suffocating humanitarian crisis due to the lack of the equipment and heavy machinery needed for the rubble removal, opening the roads, and recovering thousands of corpses”.

He noted that Israel’s decision to allow only six machines reflects its “state of ignorance regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza”.