Lawlessness is paralyzing aid delivery in Gaza, along road Israel pledged to secure, AP explains

(20 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jerusalem - 20 June 2024
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Joe Federman, Associated Press:
The Israeli military this week said it had set up a new safe corridor to allow an increase in deliveries of humanitarian supplies into the southern Gaza Strip. But so far, this plan does not seem to be working. The United Nations and other aid organisations say that it remains too dangerous for them to operate. They say that while Israel is allowing trucks to move to the border to pick up supplies, they are running into a new threat once they go back into Gaza. They say that local Palestinian crime gangs are blocking the trucks and stealing many of the supplies.
The UN says the Israeli military is not providing security for the trucks to move around inside of Gaza. At the same time, they say that after eight months of war, local police are not functioning. This has created a power vacuum that allows these crime gangs to thrive.
The U.N., the United States and Israel are all aware of the problem. They say that there are discussions going on trying to find solutions, but so far there are no breakthroughs and very few deliveries of this critically needed aid."
STORYLINE:
Early this week, the Israeli military said it was establishing a new safe corridor to deliver aid into southern Gaza.
But days later, this self-declared “tactical pause” has brought little relief to desperate Palestinians.
The United Nations and international aid organizations say a persistent breakdown in law order has made the aid route unusable.
With thousands of truckloads of aid piled up at the Kerem Shalom crossing, groups of armed Palestinians are regularly blocking convoys, holding drivers at gunpoint and rifling through their cargo, according to two U.N. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the dangerous security climate.
They say the lawlessness has emerged as the main obstacle to aid distribution in southern Gaza - where an estimated 1.3 million Palestinians displaced from Rafah, or more than half of Gaza’s entire population, are now sheltering in tent camps and cramped apartments without adequate food, water, or medical supply.
UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said Wednesday that Israel was responsible, as the occupying power, for “ensuring that this assistance reaches women, children and elderly who need it the most.”
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