Food aid in Gaza fights against desperate crowds

Food aid in Gaza fights against desperate crowds

After the last bread distribution of the Al Haj bakery on Thursday, Jihad Al Shafie was still waiting without hope to bring something to his family. Like many others in the crowd in front of the bakery in Gaza early in the morning, in the expectation, freshness To get PITA bread from the first delivery of flour that the enclosed region has reached since the beginning of March. Unfortunately, he had nothing, since many of the promised trucks with food still stuck in South Gaza, a few dozen kilometers away.

The desperate location of the people

"We see people waiting for bread, but nobody gets something," Al Shafie told CNN. "It is crucial that those responsible understand our suffering and act accordingly." On Thursday afternoon, the bakery experienced "unprecedented attacks", as the owner reported, a lot fell over the facility in a race for food. Desperate hands stretched through the small window that the workers separated from the crowd. There was chaotic hustle and bustle, and everything was quickly disappeared that many left behind with empty hands.

The call for action

Ina’am Al Burdeini had run from the Al-Maghazi refugee camp to the bakery, just to find an already overcrowded crowd. She also went without bread. "It is exhaustive and we feel lost and abandoned," said Al Burdeini, aluminum her resentment on both inside and outwards over Gaza. "People are desperate. It's time for deeds, not for empty promises. Hamas, disappear!"

Humanitarian aid achieves gaza

This week Israel to have it entered after it had imposed a complete blockade of humanitarian goods since March 2. According to the coordinator of the Israeli government for activities in the areas (cogat), which monitors the deliveries, more than 300 trucks with relief goods have arrived in Gaza since Monday.

inadequate support and security problems

This is only a fraction of the help that arrived in Gaza before the war, when 500 to 600 trucks provided the region every day, the United Nations said. On Thursday, Cogat said "that there is no food shortage in Gaza", although the office of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that Israel "had a basic amount of food" to Gaza to prevent a humanitarian crisis.

criticism of the security conditions

"The help that is now arriving is like a needle in the haystack," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Rescue and Working Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) on social media. "A significant and uninterrupted flow of help is the only way to prevent the current catastrophe from escalating." In addition, not all help reached the Palestinian population, since some were stopped due to uncertain transit paths or looted on the way to the distribution points. No truck reached the northern Gaza, where Israel has recently spent several evacuation warnings.

looting and warlike arguments

late in the night on Thursday, 30 auxiliary trucks were attacked and devastated in South and Central Gaza, reported Nahid Sheuher, the head of the transport association in the area. In Deir al-Balah, armed gangs opened the fire on the trucks and looted them. As local security forces, supported by Hamas, to secure the convoy, the Hamas media office announced that several Israeli attacks targeted the location and killed six people. CNN asked the Israeli defense forces (IDF) for a comment.

"Hunger, despair and fear of whether there will be further food aid, contribute to the increasing uncertainty," said the World Food Program (WFP) in a statement on Friday. "We need the support of the Israeli authorities to bring much larger amounts of food to Gaza faster, more consistent and on safer routes, as was possible during the ceasefire."

demand for international intervention

The Palestinian NGOS network condemned the looting of humanitarian aid vehicles. "The trucks, loaded with flour and for the supply of bakeries in Gaza city and the northern governors, were looted-and thus withdraw children and families who suffer from hunger," said the umbrella organization.

A common auxiliary program between the USA and Israel, the Gaza Humanitrian Foundation, is to put four distribution locations into operation before the end of the month. But the UN and other humanitarian organizations have refused to work with the new group. The new plan met with criticism from the leading humanitarian employee who warn that it is inadequate and that the civilian population could endanger.

UN-HEITUND Tom Fletcher said last week that no time should be wasted with an alternative plan for the auxiliary distribution, and wrote in a post: “To those who suggest an alternative distribution method: don't let us waste time-we already have a plan.”

On Friday, the bakery association in Gaza announced that the bakeries would set their work in view of the difficult circumstances in the Gaza Strip "and asked the WFP to first distribute flour to the families. Abdel Nasser Al-Ajrami, the chairman of the association, appealed to international organizations, urgently to intervene and ask Israel to let in "flour, sugar, yeast, salt and diesel" so that bread is available for everyone.

cnn’s Oren Liebermann and Dana Karni contributed to this report.