Israeli red tape slows flow of aid trucks to starving Palestinians: report

In mid-March, a line of trucks stretched for 3 kilometres along a desert road near a crossing point from Israel into Gaza.

On the same day, another line of trucks, some 1.5 kilometres long, sometimes two or three across, was backed up near a crossing from Egypt into Gaza.

These motionless food-filled trucks, the main lifeline for more than two million Palestinians, are at the heart of the escalating humanitarian crisis gripping the enclave.

UN officials have accused Israel of blocking humanitarian supplies to Gaza and the European Union’s foreign policy chief alleged Israel was using starvation as a "weapon of war."

In addition, aid agency officials say Israeli red tape is slowing the flow of trucks carrying food supplies.

Israel denies all claims, however, Reuters interviewed more than two dozen people, including humanitarian workers, Israeli military officials and truck drivers, in an effort to identify the chokepoints and reasons for delays of supplies.

Let's break down the findings:

Step 1) Request for aid trucks

The recent food security report, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), found that a lack of aid means almost all households in Gaza are skipping meals every day and adults are cutting back on meals so their children can eat.

To meet its minimum needs, aid agencies and UN officials say Gaza currently requires 500 to 600 trucks a day, including humanitarian aid and the commercial supplies that were coming in before the war.

That's about four times the number of trucks getting in now.

In the first three weeks of March, the equivalent of some 50 truckloads of aid was airdropped and brought in by sea, a Reuters tally based on Israeli military statistics showed.

Before the aid shipments enter Gaza, they undergo a series of Israeli checks, and a shipment approved at one stage of the process can later be rejected, according to 18 aid workers and UN officials involved in the aid effort.

Of 153 requests made to the Israeli authorities for goods to enter Gaza between January 11 and March 15, 100 were cleared, 15 were rejected outright and another 38 were pending, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told Reuters.

But some items are later rejected during a physical inspection, in particular, ones Israel believes could be used by Hamas and other armed groups for military purposes.

UN agencies say solar panels, metal tent poles, oxygen tanks, generators and water purification equipment are among the items the military has rejected.

Pezzati, the Oxfam worker, said he saw a warehouse in Al Arish in early March that was filled with items banned by Israel. “There were crutches, camping toilets, hygiene kits, disinfectants for doctors, for surgery,” he said.

Step 2) Destroyed warehouses

At the Kerem Shalom crossing, goods are then unloaded from the scanned trucks and reloaded onto trucks that have been vetted by the Israeli army, according to UN and aid agency workers.

These "sanitised" trucks then make a one-kilometre journey to a warehouse inside Gaza where the aid is again offloaded. The goods are then placed on trucks driven by Palestinians and taken to mostly UN-run warehouses in Rafah.

However, half the warehouses storing aid in Gaza are no longer operational after having been hit in the fighting. Of the 43 warehouses in Gaza that were operational before the war, only 22 are now working, according to the Logistics Cluster, a UN-run logistics facilitator for aid agencies.

Despite the UN findings, the Israeli military claims it approves almost 99 percent of the Gaza-bound trucks it inspects and that once the goods are inside the enclave, it is the responsibility of the international aid organisations to distribute them.

The inspection process "isn’t the impediment" to aid "getting into Gaza," said Shimon Freedman, a spokesperson for COGAT, the Israeli military branch that handles aid transfers.

However, a senior Hamas official said the "biggest threat" to the distribution of aid is Israel's ongoing attacks in Gaza.

"The biggest obstacle to getting the aid to the people who need it is the continued gunfire and the continued targeting of aid and those who are handling it," Hamas official Bassem Naim told Reuters.

Step 3) Delivery impeded by ongoing Israeli attacks

Several convoys have been attacked on the stretch of road from Kerem Shalom to Gaza warehouses by and deeper inside Gaza, others have been swarmed by crowds of people desperate for food.

Security for food convoys travelling the short distance from the crossing points to warehouses in Rafah also deteriorated after several strikes by the Israeli military killed at least eight policemen in Gaza, according to UN officials.

In addition, roads to the north have been bombed by Israel and there are delays as trucks are held up or denied access at Israeli army checkpoints, say UN and other aid agency officials.

In southern Gaza, residents are desperately waiting for aid.

"People have nothing to eat at all, nor do they have a place to stay, or a refuge," said Suleiman al-Jaal, a local truck driver who said he has been attacked transporting aid in Gaza.

"This is not a life. No matter how much aid they bring in, it's not enough."