Israel has not presented specific evidence that Hamas is diverting U.N. aid and its recent targeted killings of Gaza police commanders safeguarding truck convoys have made it “virtually impossible” to distribute the goods safely, a top U.S. envoy said in rare public criticism of Israel, reports UNB.
With the departure of police escorts following Israeli strikes, criminal gangs are increasingly targeting the convoys, said David Satterfield, the Biden administration's special Middle East envoy for humanitarian issues. He said the lawlessness as well as regular Israeli protests at crossing points by those opposed to aid going into Gaza have disrupted delivery and distribution.
“We are working with the Israeli government, the Israeli military in seeing what solutions can be found here because everyone wants to see the assistance continue,” Satterfield told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Friday. A solution "is going to require some form of security escorts to return.”
Satterfield said that Israeli officials have not presented “specific evidence of diversion or theft” of U.N. assistance, but that the militants have their own interests in using “other channels of assistance ... to shape where and to whom assistance goes.”
Even before the latest setback, the U.S. has said aid reaching Gaza is woefully inadequate. More than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people are packed into the southern city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, having heeded Israeli evacuation orders. Yet nowhere is safe, with Israel also carrying out airstrikes in Rafah.
Israel's air and ground offensive, triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, has killed over 28,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave. It as caused widespread destruction, displaced some 80% of the population and sparked a humanitarian crisis.
Rafah area residents say it's common for groups of children and teenagers to try to stop trucks as they enter Gaza and to grab supplies.
On Friday, police opened fire after a crowd charged toward an aid truck that had emerged from the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the local Crossings Authority, said one person was killed.
Israel has alleged repeatedly that Hamas is diverting aid, including fuel, after it enters Gaza, a claim denied by U.N. aid agencies. Last week, an Israeli airstrike on a car killed three senior police commanders in Rafah, the first entry point for aid deliveries. Two other officers were killed in another strike.
The police force is controlled by the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, but Satterfield noted that it also includes those who joined before Hamas seized Gaza in 2007.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
