Gaza crossings remain restricted despite dire need

Almost two weeks ago Donatella Rovera, AI researcher posted an entry ‘Task of reconstruction will be truly immense’ during her mission to southern Israel and the Gaza Strip.

This 20 year veteran stated how she and her team were “shocked” and “horrified” at the scale of destruction found and that although prepared for devastation, what they “found was even worse than we had first realized”.

United Nation’s satellite imagery taken of northern Gaza shows widespread and intense damage to buildings, infrastructure and impact craters. Although over 1500 buildings, roads and structures have been damaged, UNOSAT notes that other structures may be damaged or unstable as well, and that estimates of damage are probably an under-estimate because of the difficulty in assessing damage to dense urban areas.

To date, the US has provided nearly $60 million in humanitarian aid like water, food, medicine and plastic sheeting. The cost of damage has been assessed to be more than 2-3 billion dollars

According to the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs, crossings continue to be closed intermittently and imports greatly restricted. Exports are still not allowed.

The following audio clip offers a dire insight into the difficulties into getting humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip after the ceasefire:

A little over a week ago and two weeks after the ceasefire (and audio above), the European Union approached Israeli officials concerned that they “have not witnessed much improvement of the overall restrictions.”

Amnesty International along with other organizations including the United Nations continue to request that all the crossings into the Gaza Strip be opened to allow unhindered access for humanitarian aid and workers. Thousands remain homeless, requiring basic essentials such as food, water, mattresses, blankets and medicine. The grand task of trying to re-build can also not take place when simple reconstruction materials like concrete and plastic are not being allowed in.

Proper monitoring procedures can be put into place to guarantee aid is not going to Hamas authorities, but are properly being utilized. The bottle necks of aid at the crossings are unnecessary and continuing to hurt the victims of the attacks on Gaza from Dec. 27 – Jan. 18th. UNRWA has already shown their ability in guaranteeing the proper carrying out of its function when they stopped aid distribution after Hamas confiscated UNRWA supplies. The supplies were returned and guarantees were made by Hamas that no other confiscations would take place and UNRWA re-started their operations

No more excuses. Open the crossings now.

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13 thoughts on “Gaza crossings remain restricted despite dire need

  1. Hamas is the duly elected government and has the right and duty to organize and distribute aid in Gaza – how can AI justify working around them?

  2. Amnesty Int'l is not advocating 'working around' Hamas in humanitarian aid distribution.

    Hamas is not a humanitarian organization; it is the de facto government of the Gaza Strip. Some governments, because of steady tax revenue and stability are able to offer their citizens different levels of food and shelter security through governmental channels – Hamas is not in the position to do this to the extent that is needed in the Gaza Strip.

    Long before Hamas, the largest and oldest refugee population was created back in 1948-1949; many fled to the Gaza Strip. UNRWA – the United Nations Relief and Works Agency was designed to help the Palestinian refugees who were not allowed to return to their homes, lands and businesses in what was now the new State of Israel. UNRWA, along with other humanitarian agencies, such as the World Food Programme have been providing aid to those in need in the Gaza Strip for decades and the need in the Gaza Strip has been increasing steadily over the years, especially since the increasing restrictions on the crossings into and out of the strip.

    Approximately 75% of the Palestinians in Gaza were dependent on UNRWA, the WFP and other agencies for food and other aid. After the latest conflagration which left thousands homeless and without clean water and shelter, that number has increased dramatically. The aid bottlenecked at the crossings are meant for the UNRWA warehouses and for other agencies.

    AI isn't advocating by-passing anyone's function, but facilitating the delivery of much needed aid to the proper channels for distribution.

  3. Hamas is the duly elected government and has the right and duty to organize and distribute aid in Gaza – how can AI justify working around them?

  4. Amnesty Int’l is not advocating ‘working around’ Hamas in humanitarian aid distribution.

    Hamas is not a humanitarian organization; it is the de facto government of the Gaza Strip. Some governments, because of steady tax revenue and stability are able to offer their citizens different levels of food and shelter security through governmental channels – Hamas is not in the position to do this to the extent that is needed in the Gaza Strip.

    Long before Hamas, the largest and oldest refugee population was created back in 1948-1949; many fled to the Gaza Strip. UNRWA – the United Nations Relief and Works Agency was designed to help the Palestinian refugees who were not allowed to return to their homes, lands and businesses in what was now the new State of Israel. UNRWA, along with other humanitarian agencies, such as the World Food Programme have been providing aid to those in need in the Gaza Strip for decades and the need in the Gaza Strip has been increasing steadily over the years, especially since the increasing restrictions on the crossings into and out of the strip.

    Approximately 75% of the Palestinians in Gaza were dependent on UNRWA, the WFP and other agencies for food and other aid. After the latest conflagration which left thousands homeless and without clean water and shelter, that number has increased dramatically. The aid bottlenecked at the crossings are meant for the UNRWA warehouses and for other agencies.

    AI isn’t advocating by-passing anyone’s function, but facilitating the delivery of much needed aid to the proper channels for distribution.

  5. I must say, I can not agree with you in 100%, but it's just my IMHO, which could be very wrong.
    p.s. You have an awesome template for your blog. Where did you find it?

  6. Floor Jack – I gotta tell you I'm a bit old and have no idea what IMHO is and what you mean by 'template' for your blog. Are you talking about the Human Rights Now blog as a whole? We have some great New Media people that work on it and I know the platform is WordPress. Hope that helps.

  7. I must say, I can not agree with you in 100%, but it’s just my IMHO, which could be very wrong.
    p.s. You have an awesome template for your blog. Where did you find it?

  8. Floor Jack – I gotta tell you I’m a bit old and have no idea what IMHO is and what you mean by ‘template’ for your blog. Are you talking about the Human Rights Now blog as a whole? We have some great New Media people that work on it and I know the platform is WordPress. Hope that helps.

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