“We don't yet know the details of what happened, but what we do know at the moment is that civilians appear to have been injured and killed as they tried to get food for their severely malnourished children. “This cannot happen.” Samantha Power, the head of the United States Department of Humanitarian Assistance (USAID), was this Thursday in the West Bank city of Ramallah to analyze the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, when images and conflicting versions about the Deaths of more than 100 people occurred. People around an aid convoy. At the press conference, he refused to elaborate on what is still unclear – how many unarmed civilians were shot by Israeli soldiers (who, according to the Israeli army's version, felt threatened as they approached the tanks) and how many were crushed by trucks – but rather it was about the context: They were all following the convoy because they were hungry, and that is not the result of a natural disaster.
Two days later, this Saturday, the United States air-dropped humanitarian aid to Gaza for the first time. According to the United States Central Command (Centcom), there were more than 38,000 food rations transported by C-130 military aircraft along the Mediterranean coast. “They are part of ongoing efforts to bring more aid to Gaza, including increasing the flow of aid through land corridors and roads,” he said.
More information
There was cooperation with the Jordanian Armed Forces, another country that has resorted to air travel in recent weeks, such as Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and France. Israel controls Gaza's airspace (as it did before the war), so any delivery of humanitarian aid requires a green light, as does the delivery of humanitarian aid by land from Egypt.
The United States' decision is not just a recognition of the seriousness of the situation. Also a failure. From the need for an emergency shortcut in light of Israeli restrictions and the bottleneck in the entry and distribution of aid by land that has developed for various reasons, the average number of trucks per day was reduced to 97 by last week, the number is half that high than in January and 400 fewer than those that humanitarian organizations consider essential to addressing the humanitarian crisis. Power himself admitted it in Ramallah: “I want to make it clear. “This is not about increasing the daily number of trucks by five or ten, but about flooding the relief area with enormous amounts of food, medicine and shelter for the people who need it.”
The US military is preparing to deliver humanitarian assistance this Friday at an undisclosed location in Central Command.Tech. Sgt. Christopher Hubenthal (via Portal)
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without restrictions.
Subscribe to
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, an American NGO dedicated to assisting displaced people, refugees and stateless people, criticizes not the use of air travel, but rather “why it is done.” “This reflects the number of obstacles the Israeli government puts in place to allow aid to enter the country,” he said by phone. Konyndyk, who headed USAID's humanitarian division under Barack Obama's administration, recalls that he himself authorized such discharges in other crises when it was impossible or very expensive to distribute aid by land. But he insists it must be a “last resort” and for technical reasons, and not because Israel has made it “almost impossible” to introduce it any other way. This Saturday's delivery represents only “a portion of the daily calorie intake of a portion of the population,” he added.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell made similar comments. “Air drops should be a last resort as their impact is minimal and not without risks to civilians,” he said in a statement. Borrell condemned “Israel's restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid and the opening of border crossings” and called on the country to “immediately remove obstacles at the Kerem Shalom border crossing.” [donde se inspecciona], open access in the north to the Karni and Erez border crossings, open the port of Ashdod to humanitarian assistance and enable a direct humanitarian corridor from Jordan. Israel blames the shortage on the UN's inefficiency in introducing and distributing aid.
Row of trucks
In Egypt, an endless line of trucks waits for days for the green light to cross. It is the only country where help comes from. For political reasons, Israel keeps closed the natural point where it did so before the war: the port of Ashdod, 40 kilometers from the Gaza Strip.
Several factors come together at the bottleneck. On the one hand, they only open two crossings at a specific time. In another case, Israel is conducting a thorough inspection of shipments amid concerns that the aid could benefit Hamas. In fact, it rejects the entry of material (e.g. medical material) that it considers potentially suitable for weapons purposes. Once inside, the UN and NGOs have difficulty escorting the trucks or storing aid (some warehouses have been bombed, others are housing displaced people). Both hungry citizens and mafias who want to sell them on the market attack the convoys. And the advance is painful as the roads have been immensely destroyed by the advance of the army.
The truck tragedy, one of the most shocking episodes in the nearly five-month war in Gaza, “underscores the urgency of concluding negotiations as quickly as possible and increasing the flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza,” said United States President Joe Biden and Arab leaders at a meeting the same day, the White House said.
The negotiations he mentions are those that Israel and Hamas are conducting to agree on a second exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and an increase in humanitarian aid during a six-week ceasefire. This Sunday there will be a meeting in Egypt, one of the mediating countries. His Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry expressed this Saturday his hope of reaching an agreement next week before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. “Everyone is aware that we only have a limited time to be successful before Ramadan begins,” Shukry said at a forum in Turkey.
It is the consensus that has emerged in recent days: the agreement must be concluded before Ramadan, which begins on March 10 or 11 this year. These are joyful dates when the streets are filled with people, food and sweets at night – after breaking the fast. It would be the perfect time to give Gaza a break from the bombings and forced displacements and provide an additional dose of humanitarian aid. and in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, images of released prisoners hugging their families again.
There is also a different look at Ramadan. This is what worries Israel and drives it to speed up negotiations. At this time there are also tensions in the Middle East. And this year there have been many. Last year saw the (then) largest rocket launch against Israel from Lebanon since the war with Hezbollah in 2006, after the police twice violently entered a place as important to Muslims as the Al Mosque: Aqsa in Jerusalem .
Follow all international information on Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_