where are the aid flows? – Telquel.ma

SAccording to Israeli authorities on Wednesday, two entry points were opened from Israel into the Gaza Strip: Erez in the north of the territory and Kerem Shalom in the south.

The Rafah terminal, the only point of entry for fuel from Egypt, has been closed since the Israeli army took control of it on the Palestinian side on Tuesday. Other products passed through this crossing, which is located in the extreme south of the Gaza Strip and which, before its closure, was the main terminal for aid entering Gaza.

The army said it reopened Kerem Shalom on Wednesday, closed for three days after rocket fire claimed by the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

However, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, says no aid is entering the southern Gaza Strip. “We can’t get help“at the crossings”because we have no fuel“, spokeswoman Juliette Touma explained to AFP.

Specifically, “Rafah and Kerem Shalom are mostly closed since Sunday evening“, Alexandra Saieh from Save the Children further confirmed, during an online press conference, and “the humanitarian approach necessary to avoid famine, planned for March, was therefore not approved“.

Tuesday and Wednesday,”there was no rotation” staff across the Rafah crossing, “nor medical evacuation. No one enters or exits” through this terminal, assures Helena Ranchal from Médecins du Monde (MdM), and above all nothing enters towards her: “no water, no food, no fuel, no medicine, etc.“. NGOs are not “no visibility” for the future, she said.

According to non-governmental organizations, the Erez crossing is not “it was never fully operational”. It was opened only sporadically, and was not accessible to the majority of the humanitarian community. In addition, they emphasize, their offices, warehouses and logistics centers are now located in the south of the territory of about 365 km.².

Delivering aid to the north, which chronologically was the first area targeted by the Israeli ground offensive launched on October 27, is therefore even more complicated. Destroyed roads are one of the physical obstacles, as well as checkpoints that Israel has set up in Wada Gaza, in the center, with strict control over the movement of goods and people.

Prices have jumped in recent days, humanitarians testify: almost 40 euros for 1 liter of gasoline, 12 euros for a cigarette. Hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip only have three days of fuel left, the head of the World Health Organization warned on Wednesday.

With fuel shortages, transportation costs have “triple“, says Rafeek Elmadhoun from the Rebuilding Alliance, and the price of tomatoes, for example, has become “crazy” even then, he argues, their vitamins would be valuable at a time when hepatitis cases are on the rise.

In addition to the sea lanes and air gates that the international community uses to circumvent restrictions on access to Gaza, the US military has just completed construction of an artificial port. but “the efficiency of this pier is sensitive to external factors such as weather conditions” and “we don’t know what the inspections will look like“Israeli aid, explains Alexandra Saieh, therefore “this could be the new bottleneck“.

The methods of operation of this temporary port, which costs 320 million dollars, have not been specified, and non-governmental organizations fear the privatization of the handling and delivery of aid.

Same concern for the Rafah terminal. So far, the products that have arrived have been unloaded in the area between Egypt and Gaza and then loaded into vehicles driven by Palestinian NGO workers for distribution in the territory.

gold, “there are rumors about that fact“that”the crossing will be entrusted to a private company“, comments Jesse Marks of Refugee International, “so we are currently in the deep unknown“. “We need all options to deliver aid to Gaza“, underscores Aleksandra Saieh. “But the most efficient way remains land routes.” and “hundreds of trucks are still waiting at the border to enter“.