Israel has given the green light to United Nations authorities to begin delivering aid to Gaza starting Sunday. The AP writes this online quoting a UN official. The aid – writes AP – will include the 170,000 tons that have already been placed in neighboring countries such as Jordan and Egypt, while humanitarian officials awaited permission from Israeli forces to resume their activities. In recent months, the UN and its humanitarian partners have been able to deliver only 20% of the aid needed to address the dire situation in Gaza, according to UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher.
«If from tomorrow 600 aid trucks begin to arrive, and the same number arrive every day, it will take at least two-three months to have a minimum of normality in Gaza. But in the meantime there is a first effect of the truce: black market prices have dropped a little.” The speaker is Sami Abu, from the NGO ACS – Association of Cooperation and Solidarity which has remained in Gaza for all these two years and is now asking to “move quickly with aid”. «We have done what we could – explains Sami – but the warehouses are empty: we need medicines, food, drinking water, material to rebuild the roads and diesel: a liter now costs 25 euros, before the war 1.50. There is no gas here and diesel is used to relight the ovens and kitchens.” “All international organizations must monitor and put pressure on Israel – concludes Sami – to allow constant access of aid”.
There are many NGOs left in the Gaza Strip, although most have operated only with Palestinian humanitarian workers: ActionAid, Save the Children, Oxfam, Emergency, Cesvi, Terre des Hommes, Doctors Without Borders, which in recent weeks has withdrawn from Gaza City and has continued to operate in the center and south. And the Italian NGO ‘Vento di tenera which operates with Palestinian staff, is known for creating the tire school with recycled tyres. «We need – says Amil Sawalmeh, ActionAid director in Palestine – a permanent ceasefire and complete humanitarian access. The international community is called upon to ensure that all commitments are kept. And any reconstruction process must be led by the Palestinians themselves who have the right to decide their own future.”
For Daniela Fatarella, general director of Save The Children, «the survival of Gaza’s children and their families depends on a definitive ceasefire and continuous aid. Humanitarian access is a legal obligation, non-negotiable, and must be granted unconditionally. The international community must act now to ensure rights, protection and lasting peace for Palestinian children.”
For Emergency, the announcement of a ceasefire was welcomed in Gaza “with cautious optimism: there are fears that it could be a temporary measure, given the precedents of March, and there are fears for the impossibility of predicting how the next few months will be managed”. The NGO calls for “a permanent and lasting ceasefire and respect for humanitarian law, the opening of border crossings, the massive entry of aid into the Strip and its independent distribution”.
According to Doctors Without Borders, the entry of aid should not be subordinated to a ceasefire. And above all it is important that it is “massive and immediate” because “malnourished children and adults need tetarpeutic and non-tetarpeutic food, the hospital lacks basic medical supplies such as gauze, bandages, plasters, disinfectants and essential medications such as antibiotics and analgesics”. Because Gaza lacks everything and aid must arrive immediately.