{"id":17126,"date":"2024-03-19T12:48:10","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T12:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/19\/netanyahu-says-hes-trying-everything-to-get-more-aid-to-gaza-aid-groups-say-thats-not-true\/"},"modified":"2024-03-19T12:48:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T12:48:10","slug":"netanyahu-says-hes-trying-everything-to-get-more-aid-to-gaza-aid-groups-say-thats-not-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/19\/netanyahu-says-hes-trying-everything-to-get-more-aid-to-gaza-aid-groups-say-thats-not-true\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu says he\u2019s trying everything to get more aid to Gaza. Aid groups say that\u2019s not true"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The prime minister\u2019s remarks come amid rising criticism of Israel\u2019s military campaign in the Gaza Strip,\u00a0launched in the wake of Hamas\u2019s October 7 attacks that left around 1,200 people killed and another 250 taken hostage. Israel says its operation is meant to only target Hamas fighters and not Palestinian civilians. <\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s campaign has killed more than 31,000 people in Gaza, more than 70% of whom are women and children, according to the territory\u2019s health ministry, causing widescale destruction, mass displacement and a looming famine. <\/p>\n

The United Nations, European Union and Israel\u2019s closest ally, the United States, have all criticized its policies, calling on Netanyahu to allow more aid into the besieged enclave. <\/p>\n

Netanyahu says Israel\u2019s policy is to allow as much aid \u2018as needed\u2019<\/h2>\n

The Israeli leader\u2019s claim contradicts statements he made previously, in which he boasted about permitting \u201cminimal humanitarian aid\u201d to enter Gaza. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe provide minimal humanitarian aid,\u201d\u00a0Netanyahu said at a press conference\u00a0in January. \u201cIf we want to achieve our war goals, we give the minimal aid.\u201d <\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s war policies have also hindered aid. <\/p>\n

Less than two days after Israel began its military operation in Gaza, it placed the strip\u00a0under what Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called a \u201ccomplete siege,\u201d halting supplies\u00a0of electricity, food, water and fuel to the enclave. When aid finally began entering Gaza, it was only a trickle through a process that aid workers and the UN say is long, complicated and arduous. <\/p>\n

Aid workers and government officials say\u00a0a pattern has emerged of Israeli obstruction, where Israel\u2019s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the agency that controls access to Gaza, has imposed arbitrary and contradictory criteria on relief entering the territory. \u201cIt\u2019s deliberately opaque, deliberately ambiguous,\u201d one relief worker said of the aid delivery process. <\/p>\n

Trucks carrying aid must pass through three layers of inspection before they can enter the enclave, Martin Griffiths, the UN under-secretary-general, has said. Long linesfor inspection have led to bottlenecks at the Rafah crossing, the UN\u2019s World Food Programme (WFP) said, with the list of rejected items \u2013 or \u201cdual-use\u201d equipment \u2013 only growing. <\/p>\n

Despite calls on Israel to open more crossings into Gaza, aid is restricted to only two land crossings \u2013 the Rafah crossing with Egypt, and the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel. <\/p>\n

Israel however has a total of six crossings into Gaza, some of which haven\u2019t been operational for over a decade.\u00a0Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry\u00a0last week\u00a0\u00a0called for Israel to open them. <\/p>\n

For months, lines of trucks bound for Gaza have been backed up along the highway leading from the Egyptian town of Arish, a major logistical hub for aid, to the Rafah crossing. In a satellite image from late last month a line of trucks could be seen stretching out for 4 miles from the crossing. <\/p>\n

Even when relief does enter, Israeli bombardment, damage to roads from airstrikes, communications blackouts and mass displacement impede distribution within the enclave. <\/p>\n

Israel has also been working\u00a0to dismantle the main aid agency that has handled aid distribution in Gaza for decade, the UN\u2019s agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), accusing some of its staff of being involved in Hamas\u2019 October 7 attack. <\/p>\n

Netanyahu lauds \u2018alternative supply routes\u2019<\/h2>\n

Netanyahu said that Israel has created \u201calternative routes\u201d to deliver aid, including through airdrops, shipments by sea, and \u201cland routes.\u201d <\/p>\n

Only two land crossings\u00a0have been used to deliver aid to Gaza \u2013 the Rafah crossing with Egypt, and the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel. But volumes are insufficient compared to the scale of suffering. <\/p>\n

Israel has however tested a pilot program to deliver desperately needed aid to northern Gaza through another border gate, but only six trucks had crossed it as of last Wednesday. <\/p>\n

And while Israel has indeed allowed airdropped and maritime relief, aid groups say it\u2019s nowhere close to enough to alleviate a looming famine, and warn that it could undermine land-based deliveries. <\/p>\n

Only one ship has so far delivered\u00a0aid to Gaza, carrying the equivalent of one meal each for a quarter of the enclave\u2019s more than 2 million people. With 200 tons of aid on board, the ship delivered the equivalent of about 10 trucks\u2019 worth of relief. <\/p>\n

More shipments are expected, but the process is slow and complicated, especially as there are no functioning ports left in Gaza to efficiently receive the aid. <\/p>\n

In a joint statement\u00a0released by Amnesty International, 25 non-governmental organizations last week called on governments to prioritize land-based aid deliveries, saying \u201cstates cannot hide behind airdrops and efforts to open a maritime corridor to create the illusion that they are doing enough to support the needs in Gaza.\u201d <\/p>\n

The NGOs also warned against \u201cthe potential devastating consequences of creating dangerous precedents\u201d that risk the degradation of land-based humanitarian access, as well as prolonging hostilities. <\/p>\n

Netanyahu says Israel is allowing more trucks in<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe problem is not the number of trucks going in, although we\u2019re increasing it on a daily basis,\u201d Netanyahu said. <\/p>\n

Aid groups and the UN have said that the main problem hampering humanitarian aid in Gaza is the small number of trucks entering the enclave due to Israeli restrictions. <\/p>\n

An average of 95\u00a0aid trucks per day entered Gaza between October 10 and February 1, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, down from 500 trucks a day before the war through the Rafah crossing alone. <\/p>\n

Netanyahu says Israel is increasing the number of trucks each day. While March saw an uptick in the number of trucks crossing, the UN has suggested that the volume of aid has been fluctuating. <\/p>\n

The first 15 days of March saw an average of 165 aid trucks per day cross into Gaza,\u00a0UNRWA reported Sunday. The figure is higher than the average 95 trucks per day, but it remains well below the 500 needed per day. <\/p>\n

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini last month said that the volume of aid into Gaza\u00a0halved between January and February. <\/p>\n

Netanyahu claims Hamas is looting trucks<\/h2>\n

The UN and other aid groups have reported some of their aid trucks had been looted, but haven\u2019t ascribed any blame for it. Looting has been attributed to extreme levels of hunger and the breakdown of social order. <\/p>\n

When the World Food Programme (WFP) halted aid delivery in northern Gaza, it cited safety concerns, saying there is \u201ccomplete chaos and violence due to the collapse of\u00a0civil order.\u201d <\/p>\n

And when it tried to deliver a 14-truck food convoy this month, it was turned back by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) after a three-hour wait at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint,\u00a0WFP said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter being turned away the trucks were rerouted and later stopped by a large crowd of desperate people who looted the food, taking around 200 tons from the trucks,\u201d the agency said. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The prime minister\u2019s remarks come amid rising criticism of Israel\u2019s military campaign in the Gaza Strip,\u00a0launched in the wake of Hamas\u2019s October 7 attacks that left around 1,200 people killed and another 250 taken hostage. Israel says its operation is meant to only target Hamas fighters and not Palestinian civilians. Israel\u2019s campaign has killed more <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}