Hamas’ aid distribution and security in the first two months of the Gaza war, as reported by a U.N. relief official
Since the war began, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed. It doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tallies but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead. The figures from previous wars have largely matched that of the UN and independent experts in the ministry, which is part of the Hamas government.
Humanitarian groups complain about the delivery method used by the US and Jordan to drop food supplies off in Gaza. But the daily number of aid trucks entering Gaza since the war has been far below the 500 that entered before Oct. 7 because of Israeli restrictions and security issues.
Biden announced a plan to build a pier in Gaza to deliver aid, underscoring how important Israel is to the U.S. Hamas may have had a hand in some of the aid deliveries.
Security and distribution are related. The convoys of trucks that would be needed to distribute the aid, and who will manage and secure the temporary port area are not known.
The proposal that is being considered would allow private Palestinian contractors to handle the distribution while also having contact with the UN, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The remaining employees of Hamas’s civilian police could step in for security, U.N. officials have said, but their involvement would likely be unacceptable to Israel and the United States because of their connection to the militant group. In a briefing with reporters last month, Jamie McGoldrick, a senior U.N. relief official, said the organization was seeking to work with what remains of the police on crowd control. But they were hesitant to escort the convoys north, fearing Israeli airstrikes, he said.
Most of the people who were trampled in a crush to seize the cargo were members of the crowd who approached them in a threatening manner.
Aid has been allowed to enter Gaza through Kerem Shalom and the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which is one of two border crossings through which aid has been allowed. It can be hard for aid to go beyond Rafah according to the United Nations.
Two Western diplomats briefed on the project said they were told the full cost could be tens of millions of dollars over six months, although it was unclear whether that was just the port itself or included the cost of the intended supply shipments as well. Britain, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries have said they will back the project, although they haven’t said how much they are going to contribute.
Cost: Building the floating pier will be pricey and time-consuming. U.S. officials say the project could take up to 60 days to complete, and Gazans need more aid now. The United Nations says famine is imminent in the enclave.
The Emergency Medical Center in Gaza: The Challenge of a Large-Scale Plan to Bring Food, Water and Medicine to Gaza by a Boat
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the E.U. executive body, said Friday that officials expected to test the process in the coming days during what she described as a pilot project. But it was not immediately clear how or where any vessels would unload their cargo or how it would be distributed amid Israeli bombardment and attacks on aid trucks as hunger grows in the enclave.
An international plan to bring desperately needed food, water and medicine to Gazans by boat will face enormous logistical challenges, diplomats and aid officials say, making the proposition both expensive and likely to take some time.
Open Arms founder Oscar Camps said that the ship transporting 200 tons of flour and rice would take two to three days to reach a site where World Central Kitchen was building a pier.
The pier will likely not be open for a few weeks. The executive director of the U.S. arm of medical charity Doctors Without Borders, Avril Benoit, in a statement criticized the U.S. plan as a “glaring distraction from the real problem: Israel’s indiscriminate and disproportionate military campaign and punishing siege.”
Sigrid Kaag, the U.N. senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, has said air and sea deliveries can’t make up for a shortage of supply routes on land.
International mediators had hoped to alleviate some of the immediate crisis with a six-week cease-fire, which would have seen Hamas release some of the Israeli hostages it’s holding, Israel release some Palestinian prisoners and aid groups be given access for a major influx of assistance into Gaza.
Palestinian militants are believed to be holding around 100 hostages and the remains of 30 others captured during the Oct. 7 attack. Several dozen hostages were freed in a weeklong November truce.
Israeli strikes have killed abound 300 people there, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups, but also including about 40 civilians. On the Israeli side, at least 9 soldiers have been killed.
Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting each other in the Lebanon-Israel border area over the past 5 months.
The United Nations Aid Agency for Palestinians: Israel and Canada resume funding of the U.N. aid agency for Gaza after the Oct. 7 attack
The Open Arms aid group’s ship was expected to make a pilot trip to test the corridor this weekend. The ship is at the port of Larnaca in Cyprus. Israel has said it welcomed the maritime corridor but cautioned that it would need security checks.
President Joe Biden said Saturday that he believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in how he is approaching its war against Hamas in Gaza. Speaking to MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, the U.S. leader expressed support for Israel’s right to pursue Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack, but said of Netanyahu “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”
There are 25 people dead from hunger in the Gaza war, according to the Health Ministry, of which two have died as a result of malnutrition. A ministry spokesman said the toll included only those brought to hospitals.
The U.S. military said that its planes airdropped more than 41,000 “meal equivalents” and 23,000 bottles of water into northern Gaza, the hardest part of the enclave to access.
“The issue of aid is brutal and no one will accept it, most airdropped aid falls into the sea,” said another resident, Momen Mahra. “We want better methods.”
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is devastating and the needs are acute,” Swedish development minister Johan Forssell said, adding that UNRWA had agreed to increased transparency and stricter controls. Sweden will give UNRWA half of the $38 million funding it promised for this year, with more to come.
Sweden’s funding decision followed similar ones by the European Union and Canada as the U.N. agency known as UNRWA warns that it could collapse and leave Gaza’s already desperate population of more than 2 million people with even less medical and other assistance.
Source: Sweden and Canada resume funding the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians
The European Union’s Central Kitchen: a step toward the restoration of humanitarian humanitarian aid to the Palestinians after Israel denounces the World Central Kitchen
The ship would leave within ” the next 24 hours” according to Cyprus President Christodoulides. The founder of the World Central Kitchen told The Associated Press that all necessary permits had been secured and that the circumstances behind the delay were weather-related.
Sweden’s reversal came just as a ship carrying tons of aid was on the way to Gaza, after international donors set up a sea route to bring aid to the besieged territory.
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Another top donor to the U.N. agency aiding Palestinians said Saturday that it would resume funding, weeks after more than a dozen countries halted hundreds of millions of dollars of support in response to Israeli allegations against the organization.