Israel's pledge to guard an aid route into Gaza falls flat as lawlessness blocks distribution
UNB
Publish: 21 Jun 2024, 04:05 PM
JERUSALEM,
Jun 21 (AP/UNB) - The Israeli military said Sunday that it was establishing a
new safe corridor to deliver aid into southern Gaza. But days later, this
self-declared "tactical pause" has brought little relief to desperate
Palestinians.
The United Nations and
international aid organizations say a breakdown in law and order has made the
aid route unusable.
With thousands of
truckloads of aid piled up, groups of armed men are regularly blocking convoys,
holding drivers at gunpoint and rifling through their cargo, according to a
U.N. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized
to brief the media on the issue.
The lawlessness is a
major obstacle to aid distribution to southern and central Gaza - where an
estimated 1.3 million Palestinians displaced from Rafah, or more than half of
Gaza's entire population, are now sheltering in tent camps and cramped
apartments without adequate food, water, or medical supplies.
Here is a closer look at
the security challenges facing the U.N. and aid organizations.
Israel's 'tactical
pause' stymied
Israel said Sunday it
would observe daily pauses in combat along a route stretching from Kerem Shalom
- the strip's only operational aid crossing in the south - to the nearby city
of Khan Younis. Before the pause, aid organizations had reported that the need
to coordinate trucks' movement with the Israelis in an active combat zone was
slowing aid distribution.
The head of the U.N.'s
World Food Program said Thursday that the pause has made "no difference at
all" in aid distribution efforts. "We haven't been able to get
in," said Cindy McCain in an interview with Al-Monitor. "We've had to
reroute some of our trucks. They've been looted. As you know, we've been shot
at and we've been rocketed."
The U.N. official
familiar with the aid effort said that there has been no sign of Israeli
activity along the route. The U.N. tried to send a convoy of 60 trucks down the
road Tuesday to pick up aid at Kerem Shalom. But 35 of the trucks were
intercepted by armed men, the official said.
In recent days, the
groups have moved closer to the crossing and set up roadblocks to halt trucks
loaded with supplies, the U.N. official said. They have searched the pallets
for smuggled cigarettes, a rare luxury in a territory where a single smoke can go
for $25.
The surge in lawlessness
is a result of growing desperation in Gaza and the power vacuum left by Hamas's
waning power over the territory, said Mkhaimar Abusada, an associate professor
of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza who is now in Cairo.
With the enclave's
police force targeted by Israel, he said, crime has reemerged as an untreated
issue in Gaza.
"After Hamas came
to power, one of the things that they brought under their control was the
lawlessness of the so-called big clans," said Abusada. "Now, that's
left for the Palestinians on their own to deal with it. So once again, we are seeing
shootings between families, there are thefts, all the bad things are
happening."
UNRWA, the U.N. agency
for Palestinian refugees, used to deploy local Palestinian police to escort aid
convoys, but many refused to continue serving after airstrikes killed at least
eight police officers in Rafah, the agency said.
Israel says the police
are legitimate targets because they are controlled by Hamas.
Is any aid still getting
into Gaza?
The situation has
largely paralyzed aid distribution to the south - particularly since Gaza's
nearby Rafah crossing with Egypt was closed when Israel invaded the city early
last month.
The U.N. official said
that 25 trucks of flour used the route Tuesday. Some private commercial trucks
also got through - many of which used armed security to deter groups seeking to
seize their cargo. An AP reporter stationed along the road Monday saw at least
eight trucks pass by, armed security guards riding on top.
Before Israel's
offensive into the city of Rafah, hundreds of fuel trucks routinely entered the
area.
The U.N. has now begun
rerouting some fuel trucks through northern Gaza. Farhan Haq, a U.N. spokesman,
said five fuel trucks entered Gaza Wednesday. The U.N. humanitarian office
reported that these were the first fuel deliveries since early June and
supplies remain scarce.
Aid groups say only a
ceasefire and a reopening of the Rafah crossing could significantly increase
aid flow to the area.
The military body in
charge of coordinating humanitarian aid efforts, COGAT, did not respond to
multiple requests for comment.
Security concerns also
afflict aid from U.S. pier project
The U.S. installed a
pier off Gaza's coast last month, aiming to provide an additional route for aid
to enter Gaza. But the ambitious project has suffered repeated logistical and
security setbacks.
Cyprus and US officials
said the pier was up and running again Thursday after being detached for a
second time last week because of rough seas. COGAT said Thursday there were
"hundreds of aid pallets awaiting collection and distribution by the U.N.
aid agencies."
But there, too, security
concerns are hindering distribution of aid.
The U.N. suspended its
cooperation with the pier on June 9 - a day after rumors swirled that the
Israeli military had used the area in a hostage rescue operation that left over
270 Palestinians dead. Photos of the operation showed an Israeli military helicopter
in what appeared to be the vicinity of the pier.
Both Israel and the US
deny the pier was used in the operation. But the perception that the pier was
used for military purposes could endanger humanitarian workers, and threaten
humanitarian groups' principles of of neutrality, the U.N. says.
Aid workers said they
are working with the Israelis to find a solution, but that the security burden
falls squarely on Israel's shoulders.
Officials from the U.N.
and other humanitarian organizations, including Samantha Power, head of the U.S.
Agency for International Development, met with Israel's military chief and
COGAT officials this week to seek solutions.
USAID said afterward
that the meeting ended with promises of specific actions, but gave no details.
End/unb/AP/SU