Protracted inspections and seemingly arbitrary bans delay and in many cases stop emergency shipments from entering Gaza. That’s what two American senators say, who on the spot in the border town of Rafah witnessed how the aid stops.
The two senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats, say after their visit that the system that was supposed to ensure that the Israeli army did not block aid shipments to Gaza “has completely broken down.”
– What struck me were the long lines, for kilometers, of trucks waiting to cross the border. We couldn’t count them, but there were hundreds, says Merkley at a press conference in Cairo.
The US has tried to pressure Israel to allow more aid into Gaza and three weeks ago the Kerem Shalom border checkpoint was also opened for aid shipments, but it has not been enough, according to the senators.
– This is an ongoing humanitarian crisis, which goes on around the clock, says Van Hollen.
Suggests simplification
In the last week, according to the UN, an average of 120 trucks per day have entered Gaza, compared to around 500 daily deliveries before the war.
Therefore, Van Hollen and Merkley want to see a simplified system for the deliveries, where the trucks do not have to drive long distances unnecessarily and where all the cargo is packed off and on several times.
If a product is rejected in a truck, the car has to drive all the load back down and the whole procedure starts all over again, says Van Hollen.
Israel: Necessary
Israel claims the inspections are necessary to prevent military equipment from reaching Hamas.
The US senators say they have been inside a warehouse in Rafah with material that Israel stopped, where they saw, among other things, tents, equipment used in births, generators and oxygen.
– The warehouse is like a monument to arbitrariness, says Van Hollen.
Since the start of the war, more than 22,700 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the health authorities run by the terror-labeled Hamas. 85 percent of the area’s population is on the run, according to the UN, which previously warned that four out of ten Gazans are at risk of starving to death.