Humanitarian Aid Trucks enter Gaza
By Yadnom Awu/Asaba
Relief has come the way of starving Gazans as a stream of trucks entered the enclave today, following weeks of global outcry at the Israeli blockade of humanitarian supplies.
The United Nations World Food Programme, which oversees humanitarian activities in the enclave, put the figure of trucks at 90, but Al Jazeera, the only global media organ with effective personnel presence in the enclave, put it at 87.
The resumption of aid inflow follows three weeks of blockade during which Israel prohibited food, medicine, water and other humanitarian necessities from entering the narrow strip .
The major items supplied include flour, water , medicines and other consumables.
The return of flour means that bread, a major consumable in the strip, can now be baked at bakeries most of which had been shut for the 80 days that the blockade lasted.
But even as the bakeries roared to life, the United Nations ( UN) said the tally of aid delivery trucks was grossly inadequate to meet the huge volume of needs.
The UN World Food Programme said it had 130,000 tonnes of humanitarian items at the Gaza border, waiting to be allowed into the enclave .
The Deputy Head of the UN World Food Programme in charge of operations in Gaza, Carl Skau, said the programme needed about 500 trucks daily to meet the needs of the approximately 2 million persons it said were at the threshold of starvation in the strip.
Skau said the programme was now focusing on providing flour and other inputs for bakeries and soup kitchens in the South of the enclave where the distribution was now taking place due to security concerns.
Israel has restricted aid inflow into the South of the strip,meaning that the North and Khan Younis, the second largest Palestinian city in the enclave.
Israel had said it did not trust the World Food Programme because it was allegedly allowing Hamas, its military foe which it tags a terrorist group, to steal them.
But it did not provide the needed evidence to otop its allegations, just as it has failed to prove its charge that the UN Works and Relief Agency, UNRWA, was working hand- in- gloves with Hamas.
Both UNRWA and its operator, the UN, had roundly denied the charge
