Israel turns down international request to allow Gaza aid via its territory

The Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side as a truck carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians backs up from the other side, on 12 November 2023

Amir Tibon and Jonathan Lis report in Haaretz on 14 November 2023:

Several Western countries have appealed to Israel in recent days, asking it to allow them to bring humanitarian relief into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, in order to streamline and expedite the arrival of the aid to the Palestinian population concentrated in the southern part of the Hamas-controlled enclave.

Israel opposes the idea, having announced the complete closure of all crossings into the Strip immediately after the outbreak of the war. Despite the pressure applied by the Western countries, Israeli sources say that Jerusalem objects because it wants to renounce any responsibility for civilian matters in the Gaza Strip.

The humanitarian aid currently entering the Gaza Strip comes entirely through the Rafah Crossing on the border between Gaza and Egypt, but prior to that it undergoes a security check in Israel, most of which takes place at the Nitzana Crossing on the Israeli-Egyptian border.

In recent days, however, due to overload at the checking site, the option of checking some of the goods at the Kerem Shalom area is being examined. A source involved in the issue explained to Haaretz that Nitzana Crossing is relatively small, and the number of trucks carrying aid is on the rise.

The Western countries who appealed to Israel expressed frustration with the fact that following the security check in Israel, the aid goes back into Egyptian territory, and from there enters Gaza through Rafah, which creates significant delays in arrival.

“If they’re going to check the goods at Kerem Shalom anyway, the most logical thing is to bring the goods in through there,” a Western diplomat familiar with the talks on the matter told Haaretz. “We understand Israel’s position, but there is an attempt to avert a humanitarian disaster in Gaza. If there are thousands more dead there, or heaven forbid an epidemic breaks out, the world will blame Israel. It’s in your interest to streamline the aid.”

The Kerem Shalom crossing in 2022

Israeli opposition is based both on a professional position by security brass, who believe that Israel must cut off all ties to civilian life in Gaza, and on a fear among those close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israeli consent to such a demand will cause a coalition crisis with the parties of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The security figures who oppose the proposal believe that there are other ways to streamline the transfer of aid to the Strip, without having it moved directly between Israel and Gaza. Concurrently, European diplomats told Haaretz that some of the humanitarian relief proposals mentioned in recent days are struggling to come to fruition, despite senior Israeli figures mentioning them publicly.

Thus, for example, Israel referred several times to the desire of European countries to bring a hospital ship to the area, but the countries involved couldn’t find a suitable place to anchor. “Off the shores of Gaza is dangerous. It’s a combat zone,” explained one of the diplomats. “At the port of Ashdod, the most natural place, Israel will object. We’re trying off Egypt, but there are difficulties there too.”

Israel has changed its public attitude toward the issue of humanitarian relief in recent weeks, and rather than deny any connection to it, began to emphasize it. The backdrop to this is the increased international pressure on Israel, resulting from the high number of casualties in Gaza, the widespread destruction in the Strip, and the increasing distress of the population that fled south from Gaza City.

However, the diplomats who spoke with Haaretz agreed with the assessment of Foreign Affairs Minister Eli Cohen that international pressure on Israel will only intensify in coming days, especially due to fears of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

This article is reproduced in its entirety