The Israeli military has lifted a ban on food sales to Gaza from Israel and the occupied West Bank as its battlefield offensive chokes off international aid, according to Palestinian officials, businesspeople and international aid workers.
Army authorities this month gave Gaza operators the green light to resume their purchases from Israeli and Palestinian suppliers of food such as fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy products, days after Israeli forces launched an attack on the southern city of Rafah. of the enclave.
The offensive against Rafah, a key gateway to Gaza from Egypt, effectively halted the flow of UN aid to the devastated Palestinian territory. Israel is under increasing global pressure to ease the crisis as aid agencies warn of imminent famine.
“Israel called Gaza distributors who were buying products from the West Bank and Israel before the war,” said Ayed Abu Ramadan, president of the Gaza Chamber of Commerce. “The country told them it was ready to coordinate the collection of goods”
Reuters, which interviewed more than a dozen people familiar with the situation, is the first news agency to report on the details and impact of this resumption of commercial deliveries of food intended for sale in Gaza's markets and stores.
The move marks the first time that any goods produced inside Israel or in the West Bank, an Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, have been allowed to enter Gaza since the start of the war in October last year, according to Palestinian authorities, operators and residents.
Asked by Reuters about the resumption of deliveries, COGAT, the arm of the Israeli army responsible for aid transfers, said it was looking for ways to boost humanitarian aid and increase the amount of food for sale in Gaza.
“Allowing the private sector to bring some food to the Gaza Strip is part of efforts to increase the amount of food arriving,” added spokesman Shimon Freedman.
For months, aid workers have been calling on Israel to allow more commercial deliveries into Gaza so that fresh food can supplement international aid, which mainly contains non-perishable goods such as flour and canned foods.
The flow of deliveries, carried out via the Kerem Shalom border crossing between southern Gaza and Israel, has been irregular, according to Palestinian officials who said that between 20 and 150 trucks – each carrying up to 20 tonnes of food – entered per day, depending on how many Israel allows.
That's far fewer than the 600 trucks a day that the U.S. Agency for International Development says are needed to deal with the threat of famine, even adding in the roughly 4,200 trucks of food aid — about 190 a day — that authorities Israelis say they have entered Gaza since the attack on Rafah began on May 7.
Before the war began on October 7, when the Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel, an average of 500 aid and commercial trucks entered Gaza every day, transporting all the products needed in the enclave, from food and supplies doctors to agricultural equipment, according to UN data.
Source: CNN Brasil
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