14 hours ago
2
KEREM SHALOM CROSSING, Gaza — Thousands of pallets of humanitarian aid stacked at the Gaza border — from sacks of flour to blankets and canned food — are awaiting delivery by relief organizations that are unwilling to send supply trucks likely to be looted by Hamas terrorists and other street criminals.
The aid, coming in on trucks from Jordan, Egypt and the West Bank, has already been inspected by the Israeli Defense Forces before entering Gaza, where the international community and humanitarian organizations are in charge of delivering the assistance to Palestinians.
But the path from the Israel-Gaza border to where the aid is needed in the central and north is long — and repeatedly targeted by violent thieves.
At least one driver is shot each day in Gaza by looters forcibly stopping aid trucks to pull off whatever they can to make a profit in the middle of the devastated war zone, an IDF spokesperson told The Post.
At least 1,100 trucks have gone into Gaza in December, IDF head of coordination and liaison administration for Gaza Col. Abdullah Halabi said, but it’s unclear how many made it to their final destinations.
On Dec. 1, the United Nations Relief Workers Agency (UNRWA) announced its suspension of aid deliveries through Kerem Shalom, citing the taking of aid trucks by armed gangs.
“The road out of this crossing has not been safe for months,” it said. “The delivery of humanitarian aid must never be dangerous or turn into an ordeal.“
But instead of calling out the rampant violence, increasing its own security, or coordinating with other groups to get the aid where it’s needed, the organization blamed Israel for causing the situation, citing its “ongoing siege, political decisions to restrict the amounts of aid, lack of safety on aid routes and targeting of local police.”
They further claimed that it was Israel’s responsibility to protect aid workers and supplies in Gaza before calling for a ceasefire UNRWA alleged would “secure the delivery of safe and uninterrupted aid to people in need.”
Israel denied the allegations, inviting reporters on a trip last week to view the humanitarian aid bottleneck created by the lack of drivers.
During The Post’s visit, shelling and gunfire were heard in the distance.
“From the Israeli perspective, there is no limit to the trucks coming into Gaza. The main obstacle, the main challenge, is the international community’s capabilities [to conduct] distribution,” Habibi said.
“Israel doesn’t have any intention to stop the humanitarian aid to Gaza; it’s the opposite.”
The IDF is not responsible for policing Gaza as it fights to eliminate what’s left of Hamas in the territory — and Israeli officials say that wouldn’t be a move welcomed by the Palestinians, anyway.
After aid has been vetted and crossed into Gaza, the IDF has no responsibility to move the aid to where it belongs, IDF representatives told The Post.
But to help facilitate the safe transfer of aid, Israel opened the Philadelphi corridor for the safe passage of 300 trucks during a 10-day period earlier this month.
“We bring them more roads to bring the cargo. We escort them from the Philidelphi road — this is in the IDF’s control — we escort them until Al Rashid, which is the road next to the beach,” an IDF colonel told The Post in Kerem Shalom.
But after that, aid drivers are on their own for protection.
”There are criminal families that want to take all the cargo and sell it and to make a business for this,” the colonel said. “As you see right now in Gaza, except for driver of the truck and something like this, you don’t have a lot of work. So this is the only option to make money.”
“Now all the humanitarian aid is worth a lot of money,” he added.
Other organizations, such as UNICEF, World Central Kitchen and Save the Children have succeeded in arranging the delivery of aid, sometimes by paying off looters, the colonel went on.
“Every truck that succeeds to go out of here, most of them had the chance to succeed because they made deals with the looters,” he said. “They pay if they have stuff that is really necessary for the organization, such as medical stuff, so they prefer to pay cash.”
But UNRWA and other agencies such as World Food Program have been unable to move their cargo out, apparently unwilling to pay off the pirates, according to the colonel.
In the meantime, aid that those organizations have already paid for, sent and cleared through IDF entry points will continue to sit and waiting in the sun for some resolution to the rampant crime that’s preventing it from reaching the Gazans who need it.
English (US)