Essential supplies blocked as Israel continues to prevent entry of scale of needed aid
With Israel’s ongoing violations of key terms of the agreement, from the sporadic drones to the gunfire, the heavy artillery along the eastern side of what the Israelis describe as the yellow line, a key breach of the ceasefire remains the ongoing blockade of the crossings, preventing the entry of key essentials into the Gaza Strip.
From the time the ceasefire was signed to now, almost three weeks, if we multiply the number of trucks that were agreed to enter the Gaza Strip, we’ve seen evidence of improvement, but not at the agreed levels.
Markets are also flooded in Gaza but not with what people need to survive. They are filled with chocolates, instant noodles, biscuits, and there is a large absence of vitamin and protein sources.
Palestinians suffer as they find newly reopened banks have no cash
Palestinians in Gaza have been going through a shortage of cash as they are unable to spend what little money they have, with no cash in the banks.
Banks began reopening on October 16, six days after the ceasefire was announced. Queues soon formed, but people came away disappointed.
“There is no money, liquidity at the bank,” said father-of-six Wael Abu Fares, 61, standing outside the Bank of Palestine. “You just come and do paperwork transactions and leave,” the Palestinian told the Reuters news agency.
Mother-of-seven Iman al-Ja’bari longs for a time when transactions at banks used to take less than an hour. “You need two or three days to go back and forth, back and forth, spending your whole life standing there,” she told Reuters.
“And in the end, you only get 400 or 500 shekels ($123 or $153). What can this (amount) buy with the incredibly high prices today that we can’t afford?”
Palestinian women queue outside the Bank of Palestine amid a cash shortage in Nuseirat
The damaged building housing the Bank of Palestine stands in Gaza City
