How does humanitarian aid reach Gaza? | Middle East, the eternal conflict

As humanitarian aid trickles into the Gaza Strip, the United Nations says widespread famine is almost inevitable in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian enclave.

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An organization distributes food to Gazan refugees in Rafah on March 11, 2024.

Agence France-Presse

The vast majority of humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip arrives through Egypt and is subject to meticulous inspections by the Israeli authorities before being released. enter the south of the Palestinian territory.

Faced with the quantities deemed insufficient of aid entering in this way, the international community is seeking to diversify delivery routes by means of air drops or a maritime corridor from Cyprus. Israel also brought six trucks through northern Gaza as part of a pilot project.

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Aid usually arrives in Egypt through the ports of Port Said or El-Arich. The latter, much smaller than Port Said, is closest to the Gaza Strip, but it is quickly overwhelmed, according to NGOs, by the volumes unloaded there.

All this aid is inspected by Israeli authorities, who have scrupulously controlled everything that enters the territory since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

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Humanitarian aid packages are dropped over the northern strip from Gaza on March 8, 2024.

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The main inspection point is located at Kerem Shalom, at the southeastern tip of the Gaza Strip. Another checkpoint exists in Nitzana, an Israeli town located about fifty kilometers east of Kerem Shalom.

Before Before being inspected, the trucks, most of which enter through the Rafah crossing point on the Egypt-Gaza border, wait for days in a transit zone with a capacity of approximately 50 places – is considered insufficient by NGOs.

Products allowed to enter after inspection are unloaded from trucks in the area between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, then loaded onto other vehicles driven by Palestinians who work for NGOs in view of the distribution of aid in the territory.

According to NGOs, Israel's draconian controls are the main reason for the slow delivery. Israeli authorities cite the inability of humanitarian organizations to handle all aid in the Gaza Strip.

Apart from Rafah and Kerem Shalom, in the south, no other crossing points to the Gaza Strip are open.

International organizations, likewise that the United States has been urging Israel for weeks to open passages to this part of the Palestinian territory where the humanitarian crisis is deepest.

Israel announced overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday that six aid trucks from the World Food Program (WFP) had entered directly into the north via Gate 96 of the security barrier, an army pilot project.

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Trucks carrying humanitarian aid circulate in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on the 10th March 2024.

The delivery of aid to the north from southern Gaza is very complex due to the destruction and fighting. Last week, the WFP announced that one of its convoys had been blocked by Israeli authorities before it could pass into the north. After turning around, it was looted by a desperate crowd.

According to Israeli authorities, 173 trucks were transported to the north of the Gaza Strip since the beginning of March, compared to 207 trucks entering the territory on Tuesday alone.

Faced with insufficient aid, several countries (United States, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, France, Belgium, etc.) are carrying out air drops, particularly in the north.

The opening of a maritime corridor between Cyprus and Gaza has also enabled the departure , Tuesday, of a first boat with 200 tons of food.

According to the Spanish NGO that owns the boat, Open Arms, the cargo was exhaustively inspected by Israeli authorities in the Cypriot port of Larnaca.

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A ship from the Spanish NGO Open Arms at the Cypriot port of Larnaca on March 11, 2024< /p>

A second ship loaded with aid is ready to set sail from Larnaca, but we are waiting to see how the first delivery goes, said Wednesday the Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Small quantities, random nature, dangerous nature of the drops on highly populated areas: these initiatives are not considered satisfactory by the organizations international organizations nor by the Gazans.

Morocco, for its part, indicated on Tuesday that a shipment of 40 tons of aid had landed at Tel Aviv airport to be transferred by land via Israel to Kerem Shalom.