Why not enough food is reaching people in Gaza – Chicago Tribune

The international outcry on images of emaciated children and growing deaths related to hunger have put pressure on Israel to leave more aid in the Gaza Strip. This week, Israel has paused by fighting in some parts of Gaza and airy food.

But the aid groups and the Palestinians say that the changes have been increasing and are not enough to reverse what food experts say they are a “worst case of famine” which takes place in the territory ravaged by the war.

The new measures have increased the number of assistant trucks entering Gaza. But almost nothing affects the UN warehouses for distribution.

Instead, almost all trucks are stripped of their cargo by crowds that overwhelm them on the roads while driving borders. The crowd is a mixture of desperate Palestinians for food and gangs armed with knives, axes or pistols that plunder the goods and then accumulate or sell.

Many were also killed while trying to enter the help. Witnesses say that Israeli troops often open fire on crowds around aid trucks, and hospitals have reported hundreds of killed or injured. The Israeli army says that it only pulled warning fire to control the crowd or in people approaching its strength. The alternative food distribution system managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation supported by Israeli has also been spoiled by violence.

International aid ardrops have resumed. But help groups say that the Airdrops only delivers what trucks can provide. In addition, many packages have landed in areas now inaccessible that the Palestinians were invited to evacuate, while others plunged into the Mediterranean Sea, forcing people to swim to recover bags of soaked flour.

Here is an overview of the reason why the aid is not distributed:

A lack of confidence

The UN says that long -standing restrictions on the entrance to the aid have created an unpredictable environment and that if a break in the fighting could allow more help, the Palestinians are not confident, help will reach them.

“This has resulted in many of our convoys discharged directly by hungry and desperate people while they continue to face deep hunger levels and find it difficult to feed their families,” said Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the United Nations Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs Coordination, or Ocha.

“The only way to reach a level of confidence is to have a sustained aid flow over a period of time,” she said.

Israel prevented food from entering Gaza for 2 and a half months from March. Since he attenuated the blockade at the end of May, he allowed in a net of trucks for help for the UN, around 70 per day on average, according to official Israeli figures. It is below the trucks 500-600 per day which, according to the UN agencies, are necessary-the amount entered during a cease-fire of six weeks earlier this year.

Much of the aid is stacked just inside the border in Gaza because the United Nations trucks could not pick it up. The UN says it was because of Israeli military restrictions on its movements and because of anarchy in Gaza.

Israel argued that it allowed sufficient quantities of goods to Gaza and tried to transfer the blame to the UN “collection and distribution more coherent by the United Nations agencies and international organizations = more aid reaching those who need it most in Gaza”, said this week the Israeli military agency in charge of the coordination of aid, Cogat, in a press release.

With the new measures this week, Cogat, indicates that 220-270 trucks per day were authorized in Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday, and that the UN was able to recover more trucks, reducing part of the backwards at the border.

Help missions are still faced with “constraints”

Cherevko said there were “minor improvements” of approvals by the Israeli army for its movements and “reduced waiting time” for trucks along the road.

But she said that the assistance missions were “always confronted with constraints”. Delays in military approval always mean that trucks remain inactive for long periods, and the army always restricts the routes that trucks can take on a single road, which allows people to easily know where trucks go, according to UN officials.

Antoine Renard, who directs the operations of the World Food Program in Gaza and in the occupied Wedding, said on Wednesday that it had taken almost 12 hours to bring 52 trucks on a 10 kilometers (6 miles).

“While we do everything we can to meet the current wave of famine to Gaza, the conditions we have are not sufficient to make sure that we can break this wave,” he said.

Humanitarian workers say that the changes made by Israel in recent days are largely cosmetic. “These are theaters, gestures of token disguised as progress,” said Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s leader in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

“Of course, a handful of trucks, a few hours of tactical breaks and energy bars that rain from the sky will not repair irreversible damage to a whole generation of children who have been hungry and suffering from malnutrition for months now,” she said.

Will of the law and the order

As despair rises, the Palestinians risk their lives to get food and violence increases, say humanitarian workers.

Muhammad Shehada, Gaza Political Analyst who is a researcher invited to the European Council for Foreign Relations, said that the recovery of aid has transformed the survival of the most fit. “It is Darwin dystopia, the strongest survivor,” he said.

A truck driver said on Wednesday that he had carried out food supplies four times from the Zikim crossing on the northern border of Gaza. Each time, he said, a crowd of one kilometer long (0.6 thousand) surrounded his truck and took everything after passing the control point on the edge of the Israeli army areas.

He said some were desperate people, while others were armed. He said that Tuesday, for the first time, some in the crowd threatened him with knives or light weapons. He spoke under the cover of anonymity, fearing for his safety.

Ali Al-Derbashi, another truck driver, said that during a trip in July, armed men fired on the tires, all stolen, including diesel and batteries and beat him. “If people were not hungry, they wouldn’t go to that,” he said.

Israel said he had offered the UN armed escorts. The UN refused, saying that it cannot be seen working with a party in the conflict – and highlighting the shots reported when Israeli troops are present.

Uncertainty and humiliation

Israel did not give a calendar for the duration of the measures it implemented this week, increasing the uncertainty and urgency of the Palestinians to grasp the help before its end.

The Palestinians say that the way he is distributed, including having fallen from the sky, is inhuman.

“This approach is inappropriate for the Palestinians, we are humiliated,” said Rida, a moved woman.

Momen Abu Etayya said he had drowned almost because his son had begged him to receive aid that fell into the sea during a drop of help.

“I threw myself into the ocean to death just to bring him something,” he said. “I could only bring him three packets of cookies”.