Exhaustive checks by Israeli troops, long waits in ‘checkpoints’ or crossing active combat zones have been some of the endless obstacles faced for months by agencies responsible for distributing humanitarian aid in Loopwho in recent weeks have faced a new problem: assaults on their trucks and smuggling of tobacco.
“There is a massive cigarette smuggling business,” Sam Rose, director of planning for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), told EFE from Deir al Balah, in the centre of the enclave.
The trucks are being seen “infested”, The agencies are not aware of who or how the cigarettes are smuggled in, presumably into Egypt, among the pallets of flour, medicines and other products destined for the Strip, which is experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis.
It is an operation “very organized” between tobacco suppliers and gangs, who on the Palestinian side know which trucks have been loaded with tobacco and wait for them on the road armed to attack them after crossing – after exhaustive Israeli controls – the Kerem Shalom crossing, one of the only three land aid entrances to Gaza in operation along with Gate 96 (center) and Erez (north).
At $25 to $30 a cigarette and around $500 a pack, tobacco has become one of the most profitable commodities for smugglers in the Strip, where consumption, already widespread among the population, has skyrocketed due to the stress of war.
“It’s not something you can buy for yourself” In the devastated Palestinian territory, where cigarettes have also become a currency in the face of the serious liquidity crisis, a Gazan who prefers to remain anonymous tells EFE.
“I have my friends, we are a group of five. We put in about 25 shekels each (just under US$7) to buy a cigarette and we share it.”relates“It’s the way to get the nicotine rush you need every day.”
Lack of law and order in Gaza
Looting trucks in southern Gaza has become a common practice in the absence of an internal security force, Rose said. Hamas police have been a clear target of the Israeli army, especially in its operations in Rafah (south), which began on May 6.
In the power vacuum, organized gangs gained influence on routes such as the Salah al-Din corridor, which runs through the Strip from south to north from the Kerem Shalom crossing.
On this route they operate especially “two groups of bandits, two of the largest families in Rafah,” Palestinian sources told EFE, pointing to the Al Omour and Maddi clans, residents near the border crossing with Egypt.
In addition to the tobacco hidden in humanitarian aid convoys, these groups “They want commercial trucks because they make more money”these same sources say, as they are the ones who introduce fresh foods such as meat and vegetables into Gaza, which have been absent from the Gazan diet in recent months, especially in the north.
Nearly 500,000 people face “catastrophic levels of food insecurity” in Gaza, where at least 34 children have died from malnutrition, according to the latest OCHA report.
More help to prevent looting
“If there were enough supplies, no one would try to benefit from them,” Jonathan Crickx, head of communications for UNICEF in Palestine, told EFE about the tiny number of trucks carrying aid entering the Strip.
Before the war, some 500 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza every day, but in the first week of July OCHA recorded some 90 a day, loaded to half capacity as requested by COGAT, the Israeli military body that manages civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, to speed up inspection.
Once in Gaza, a long process of permits begins between humanitarian organisations and the army for their workers to cross active combat zones, such as Rafah, and collect the shipments, enduring waits at checkpoints of up to five hours.
Added to all this is a final problem: the lack of fuel to mobilise the convoys. “Israel has refused to allow us to bring in gasoline,” says Rose, which disables his equipment.
In response to COGAT’s continued complaints against agencies such as UNRWA, which it accuses of not collecting aid entering Gaza, spokesman Jonathan Fowler responded: “There is nothing surprising about a traffic jam of aid trucks at Kerem Shalom, because it is impossible in these conditions to safely and regularly go and pick them up.”
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Source: Gestion
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