An Israeli soldier stands on the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing with a truck carrying humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip during ongoing clashes between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas on January 22, 2024. Next to the Egyptian truck.
Menachem Kahana AFP | Getty Images
hundreds of trucks Loaded with food and medical aid idle on the road leading to Gaza Recently, a senior humanitarian official accused the Israeli government of preventing life-saving supplies from reaching the devastated enclave.
“They limit the number of trucks that can go through,” Mohamed Nosair, the Egyptian Red Crescent’s chief of operations, said of Israeli officials and soldiers tasked with inspecting aid shipments to Gaza. “The problem is also that they refuse these Items…that’s very important.”
Items such as oxygen tanks, water filters, metal forks, over-the-counter painkillers and generators prevented trucks from entering Gaza, where the vast majority of people have been displaced and more than 32,000 have died, according to Nosair. local health officials.
“If I have a truck with rejected items, they’re going to reject all the trucks,” Nossel told NBC News.
On Thursday, the U.N.’s top court reinforced Nosel’s statement, ordering Israel to open more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into Gaza.
Nosair and other aid officials charge that Israeli officials have been implementing opaque and cumbersome procedures that are exacerbating the region’s dire humanitarian crisis. The accusations, which come amid warnings of “imminent” famine in Gaza, have prompted more criticism of the Israeli government and recriminations with aid agencies.
Israeli officials have repeatedly denied blocking aid from entering Gaza, instead blaming the United Nations for severe shortages of life-saving supplies in Gaza, particularly in the north.
Members of Rafa’s NBC News team saw hundreds of cars on the road, some in parking lots and many more at a tunnel crossing in Ismailia, about four hours and 125 miles away. Satellite images from last week also showed trucks on the road and parked near intersections.
According to Nossair, around 100 to 120 trucks were entering Gaza per day at the time – about half the number Israel could handle and a fraction of pre-war levels. (Aid agencies and the United Nations say Gaza needs 500 to 600 trucks a day to transport humanitarian aid and commercial supplies.)
He said unclear restrictions imposed by Israel resulted in an average of 20 to 25 trucks being turned away every day, about a fifth of the number that ended up in Gaza.
Nossel said supplies packed in wooden boxes are rejected outright, regardless of what’s inside. He said the trucks would also be rejected if the aid pallets did not meet the exact dimensions approved by the Israeli government.
The Center for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territory (COGAT), the Israeli government agency responsible for allowing aid into Gaza, told NBC News that 99 percent of aid trucks are approved after screening.
he forced them Says it has “no limits” Amounts of aid coming into Gaza, but with tighter security checks on certain items.
“The State of Israel will continue to promote humanitarian solutions in the Gaza Strip but has no intention of compromising in any way when it comes to the security of its citizens,” the department said in a statement to NBC News.
NBC News recently requested permission to travel to the Kerem Shalom crossing to report on the incident, but was denied by Israeli officials. Kerem Shalom and Rafah in Egypt are off-limits and require permission to enter.
Israeli officials have also accused the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) of failing to distribute aid. According to COGAT, UNRWA has not asked the convoy to move north for six weeks.
Representatives of UNRWA did not respond to requests for comment on the allegation.
Meanwhile, UNRWA also accused Israel of hampering aid efforts by rejecting convoys and trucks carrying items such as scissors in medical kits.
Israel’s accusations At least a dozen UNRWA staff members attended the event October 7, Hamas terrorist attack prompting major donors to withdraw funding from the organization and sparking a heated debate over the limited evidence provided by Israel.
Freezer problem
Nossel said sometimes the problem isn’t the item itself, but where it’s stored.
For example, he said, Israeli officials have returned insulin because it was kept in a refrigerator.
COGAT has a list of “dual-use” items it believes need to be subject to closer scrutiny, which mainly include chemical products, cement, metal and construction items. The list does not include coolers, painkillers, narcotics or medical equipment, but Nossel said everything from narcotics to paracetamol was rejected.
COGAT said dual-use items are not subject to a blanket ban.
Asked why certain items, as well as truckloads of aid, were sometimes denied entry and sometimes denied entry, COGAT said in a statement: “They are subject to security checks because of the cynical use of these tactics by the Hamas terrorist group. To advance its terrorist goals.” No.
Aid distribution within Gaza is also a struggle, particularly in the northern Gaza corridor, where aid has been inconsistent. The World Food Program says the convoy’s journey to the north is dangerous because large crowds and delays at checkpoints often leave the convoys vulnerable to violence. Even if the convoy does reach the area, the Israeli military may deny them entry.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Filippo Lazzarini said on Sunday that Israel would no longer authorize the agency’s convoys to travel to northern Gaza.
“This is outrageous and deliberately blocks life-saving aid during a man-made famine,” Lazzarini said in a post on X. “These restrictions must be lifted.”
COGAT responded to Lazzarini on social media, saying that Israel provided more than 350 trucks of aid to northern Gaza last month. It also cited Israeli accusations: UNRWA staff linked to terrorism.
The Initiative for Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released a report earlier this month warning of “imminent famine”, particularly in northern Gaza, where the first death due to malnutrition was reported last month.kogat wrote in a post on The information used by the IPC is out of date and aid has improved significantly in recent weeks.
Still, the World Health Organization warned earlier this month that children are dying from the combined effects of malnutrition and disease, and Gazans will face long-term health effects.
“This undermines the health and well-being of the entire next generation,” the World Health Organization said in a statement after the IPC report was released.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that famine is looming amid the bombing of Gaza despite stepped-up aid.
“Hunger and disease continue to ravage people. Immediate and coordinated action is needed now,” Tedros said on the X program.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with Arab leaders in Cairo last week, said diplomats agreed that more action was needed to ensure that the surge in aid in recent weeks was sustained over time and that ” Israel needs to take more action”.
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