Contributor: Blocking aid, Israel escalates its cruelty in Gaza
15,000 boxes of cold medicine and other vital medicines for children in the Gaza Strip have been in a warehouse for more than five months, awaiting approval from Israeli authorities, and that approval appears to never come.
According to Israeli officials, the cold medicine I tried to deliver is a potential weapon. Israeli officials fear Hamas will steal the vials and use the small amount of glycerin in the drug to make explosives, although there is no evidence that armed groups in Gaza have done or could do so. Israel has refused to clarify what percentage of glycerin will be allowed, so we can’t even find an alternative that would guarantee cleanliness. While the medicine remains in a warehouse, children in Gaza continue to die because they cannot receive basic treatments.
Since a ceasefire was declared last October, Israel has waged a quieter war against the people of Gaza, with constant airstrikes, land grabs, and the destruction of entire neighborhoods, making our job as humanitarian aid nearly impossible. While aid awaits in warehouses just outside Gaza, we continue to witness a humanitarian disaster. The international community needs to ensure that Israel complies with its commitments in the ceasefire agreement before another child dies.
More than 2 million people are currently trapped in Gaza, in an area about one-third the size of Los Angeles. Since October, Israel has destroyed at least 2,500 buildings, sometimes entire neighborhoods, in the area it occupied. Israel estimated By last autumn, we had destroyed or demolished more than 80 percent of the buildings in the Gaza Strip, creating wastelands of rubble. Displaced families now live in large tent settlements; Here they face malnutrition, hunger and the spread of disease. When fires consume these temporary homes, displaced Palestinians are often stranded.
Life for Palestinians in Gaza was further reduced last October when Israel accepted a Trump-imposed ceasefire that left Israel in control of 53% of the territory.
The chances of Israel allowing Palestinians to return to their homes are slimming down. We see Israeli government officials encouraging activists to establish Jewish settlements on land in Gaza that will be part of the future Palestinian state.
Israel also refused to allow the 600-truck daily humanitarian aid shipment it agreed to during ceasefire negotiations to enter the Gaza Strip. Israel claims to allow an average of 450 trucks per day, but the UN says it is closer to 113 trucks per day. About 500 trucks a day were entering Gaza before 2023, according to the UN On Saturday morning, in line with US-Israeli attacks on Iran, Israel closed all Gaza crossings “until further notice.”
I experienced firsthand the Byzantine system that Israel has established that actually prevents aid from reaching the Palestinians. My efforts to deliver essential life-saving aid to the people of Gaza have been repeatedly hampered by Israel’s ever-changing rules and regulations.
I had a rare vantage point in Gaza as one of the few independent humanitarian workers directly involved in distributing food, medical supplies and tents into Gaza, partly because Israel has maintained a near-total blockade of the strip and partly because Israel has suspended the licenses of 37 aid groups, including respected organizations such as CARE, Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders. All of these materials have been reviewed and blocked from time to time.
Israel blocked tents’ efforts to enter Gaza because the tents were labeled as dual-use objects that militants could use to conceal weapons. Metal tent poles are considered questionable. Aid groups sending green jackets have stopped the shipments because Israel sees them as dual-use items that officials say can also be used as military uniforms. These policies are arbitrary, overly broad, and seemingly deliberately vague, and the approval process is too lengthy to respond to the real-time needs of Palestinians.
Another aspect of the work I have done since October 2023 has been personally evacuating the seriously injured from Gaza. Israel only allowed in around 200 medical patients They have been required to leave Gaza since the southern border with Egypt reopened in early February. When patients are allowed out, Israel often prevents their caregivers (mostly mothers of sick and injured children) from going with them, citing unspecified “security” objections. These policies brutally, needlessly and indefinitely tore families apart. I speak regularly with members of these separated families. The destruction is immeasurable.
Israel’s stranglehold on Gaza comes as Israel is pressing to annex more land in the West Bank and displace more Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have been clear about their intention to control territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean.
Netanyahu has long opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state. What will happen to the 5.6 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip? Netanyahu wants nothing more than for them to leave.
Israel’s destructive campaigns in Gaza may no longer make big headlines or feature in people’s social media feeds, but crimes against humanity continue. Gaza residents continue to need help from the outside world, no longer to negotiate a ceasefire but to ensure that aid reaches suffering and dying civilians. Children’s cold medicine is not a weapon and should not be treated as such.
President of Amed Khan Amed Khan FoundationIt is an organization that provides humanitarian aid on the front lines of crises around the world.
