The extreme chaos gripping the Gaza Strip is making distributing much-needed aid in the south too dangerous and difficult, aid groups and others say, despite Daily pause in combat that Israel is observing along a key road there.
Days after the moratorium took effect, more than 1,000 trucks carrying supplies remained stranded in Gaza near Kerem Shalom’s border with Israel, with thousands of tons of food, medicine and other goods just miles away. Palestinians need them several miles away, aid groups and Israeli officials said. .
The threat of looting and attacks by armed gangs has forced aid groups to suspend support in southern Gaza. The trucks used the bullet-riddled supply route. Businessmen sending commercial goods into the territory and aid agencies decided that they could not risk the lives of their employees by driving.
As a result, the Israeli military’s decision to pause fighting for hours each day along the aid route has so far borne fruit. meager humanitarian benefits.
The grim situation is part of a domino effect of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which has largely toppled the Hamas government without a civilian government to replace it.
In much of Gaza, there are no police to contain the chaos, few city workers are cleaning up piles of rubble and trash, and there are only minimal public services. Organized crime groups have filled the void, whose links – whether to Gazan clans or armed groups such as Hamas – remain unclear.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said Wednesday that Israeli leaders need to push for an alternative to Hamas in Gaza to distribute food and handle public services, if or risk seeing the group that led the October 7 attack on Israel return to power.
“The idea that it is possible to destroy Hamas, to make Hamas disappear – that is throwing sand in the public eye,” Admiral Hagari said in a television interview. “If we don’t bring something else to Gaza, we will end up with Hamas.”
His comments came amid a growing and unusual public conflict between the Israeli military and the country’s political leadership. More than eight months after the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to lay out a clear plan to stabilize Gaza or manage it after the war, although he has ruled out the possibility that even the internationally backed Palestinian Authority would take responsibility. responsibility and Israeli settlements there.
Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza endure widespread chaos and deprivation. Aid groups say too little aid is getting into the territory and even that aid often fails to reach those who need it. Since an Israeli military offensive on the southern city of Rafah closed another crossing last month, Kerem Shalom has been the only route for aid into southern Gaza.
Manhal Shaibar, who supervises a Palestinian trucking company working at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, said some goods were damaged by the heat on the Gazan side. Some commercial trucks were trying to escape under heavy security, he said, despite attacks by armed Gazans, but aid remained stuck.
“People in Gaza cannot find food,” Mr. Shaibar said. “But goods are scattered everywhere at this intersection.”
“It was a disaster,” he said.
Farhan Haq, a United Nations spokesman, told reporters Tuesday that Israel’s pause announcement “has not yet resulted in more aid for those in need.”
One person involved in the aid distribution effort said armed criminal gangs are operating with almost complete freedom in the Israel-Gaza border area, where trucks must pass and attack people. day. The person described the attacks as coordinated and organized, rather than the spontaneous looting by desperate Gazan civilians that plagued aid convoys in the early months of the war. .
This person said armed attackers shot at the trucks, forcing them to stop, and sometimes beat the drivers before stripping the vehicles of their belongings.
And there’s no one to call for help: The Hamas-run police force that helped secure aid deliveries earlier in the war disbanded months ago after the Israeli army killed several officers. (The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was bound by confidentiality agreements.)
Mr Haq said the “lack of police or law enforcement in the area” had made the roads around the intersection extremely dangerous.
Aid officials say the number of international aid trucks reaching Palestinians in southern Gaza has dropped sharply since Israel’s Rafah offensive began on May 7. Only a small amount of aid has been delivered. shipped through Kerem Shalom, aid officials said, including what a Western aid official said was 30 truckloads sent through Jordan on Monday.
Another border crossing, at Rafah on the Egypt-Gaza border, has remained closed since early May, although Egyptian authorities have allowed some trucks to pass through it on their way to Kerem Shalom. Egypt and Israel have been arguing for weeks over how and when to reopen the Rafah crossing.
In an effort to make up for the shortfall, Israeli authorities began allowing more commercial goods into Gaza from Israel and the occupied West Bank. Unlike UN convoys, these trucks tend to travel with armed guards, allowing them to traverse dangerous terrain.
According to a US official working on the aid effort, Israel paused commercial deliveries for about two weeks to try to allow aid trucks to move through. But on Sunday, with no aid moving along that route because of insecurity, Israel continued to send commercial trucks, 20 of which went to Gaza, the official said. US officials are not allowed to speak publicly.
Saed Abu al-Ouf, a Gazan businessman who has sent about three truckloads of rice into the area since mid-May, said he had halted shipments because of armed gangs. He said he previously paid thousands of dollars in protection money to a group of Gazans to ensure the safety of his truck.
However, he said that currently it is simply too dangerous on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom intersection. He was taking his latest truckload of goods toward Israel, hoping some order would be restored.
“There is no security or any government ruling in Gaza,” Mr. Abu al-Ouf said in a telephone interview from Cairo. “Armed people can take over your goods.”
“It is much more dangerous than before and we need a strong police apparatus to protect us. We are businessmen – we cannot play the role of police at the same time,” he said.
