Chaos at Gaza aid distribution points ‘predictable and preventable’: Advocate
Shaina Low, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) communications adviser in Palestine, says the scenes of Palestinians desperately seeking food highlight the risks involved in bypassing coordinated humanitarian distribution systems.
“What we’re seeing now – people walking tens of kilometres to access distribution sites, the chaos that is unfolding, the way that Palestinians are being corralled to reach aid – it’s just devastating,” Low told Al Jazeera from Amman, Jordan.
“People have been suffering for nearly 20 months of hostilities now and are desperate for any type of food or any type of assistance to help them and their families survive. No one should be subjected to this type of undignified treatment and the danger that it poses for civilians.”
Low added that these distribution sites are being used “to advance Israel’s political and military objectives” to displace Palestinians. In contrast, humanitarian groups such as the NRC and the United Nations deliver assistance directly to people in need, where they are.
“That ensures that vulnerable people … don’t have to go long distances. We make sure that aid reaches people in need and is fit for what their needs are. The boxes that they have been receiving are nowhere near adequate to meet the desperate needs of a population that’s been starved for the past 80-plus days.”
“What is happening to us is degrading. The crowding is humiliating us,” Areef told the AFP news agency after visiting one of the GHF centres in Gaza. “We go there and risk our lives just to get a bag of flour to feed our children.”
Another resident, 60-year-old Abu Fawzi Faroukh, also said the situation was “so chaotic”.
“The young men are the ones who have received aid first, yesterday and today, because they are young and can carry loads,” Faroukh told AFP. “But the old people and women cannot enter due to the crowding.”
Palestinians receive aid supplies from the GHF in central Gaza on May 29
‘Very risky’: Palestinians stuck near aid distribution point
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud says Palestinians who walked to a newly opened aid distribution point at the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza are unable to leave due to Israeli military activity in the area.
“Many of the people who showed up at the site are trapped right now and unable to leave the area due to the presence of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles [and] the ongoing shooting,” Mahmoud said.
“They’ve been sending appeals to the Red Cross to coordinate their departure from the area. It’s becoming very risky for them to walk on their own.”
He explained that many of the people who are stuck near the site walked more than 5km (three miles) to reach the distribution point.
“Exhausted, tired, traumatised and hungry – many of the people showed up earlier today just to pick up one food parcel,” he said.
Israel blocking UN from retrieving aid to deliver it to Gaza: Spokesperson
Dujarric, the UN chief’s spokesperson, says there are 600 aid trucks on the Gaza side of the Karem Abu Salem crossing (also known as Kerem Shalom), but Israel has blocked the world body from retrieving the supplies for the past three days.
He explained that the UN must coordinate with COGAT, the Israeli government agency that administers activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“We need [Israeli] clearance to go get the material. We need their clearance to go back, and we also need to accept that the route that they’ve … given us a greenlight for is not one where we feel it is unsafe for the cargo and our colleagues to travel on,” Dujarric told reporters.
He said that the last time the United Nations was able to bring goods into Gaza, both the UN and the Israeli authorities had agreed to a route.
“The problems are that the insecurity continues, and frankly, they are not making it easy for us to deliver humanitarian goods,” Dujarric said.
‘We haven’t seen any food or flour in five days’
Desperation is growing in Gaza as thousands of Palestinians are having to walk long distances to find food. “We have come a long distance, around 10km [6.2 miles] to take this box tainted with blood,” Saher Abu Tahoon told Al Jazeera in central Gaza.
“We need this box because there’s no food to eat. We haven’t seen any food or flour in five days. “We went to get food for our children from a very faraway place. I can’t even carry this box because I am too tired, and I am too hungry.”
