Commercial goods trucked into Gaza after aid logjams
As bombs thunder in Gaza, just across the border in southern Israel truck driver Itzik waits in a barbedwire protected parking lot for his delivery to clear inspection into the hunger-stricken territory.
He lists a lorry loaded with Gaza-bound eggs, chicken, sesame, spices, tea and coffee, all destined for private markets that Palestinians and humanitarian workers describe as unaffordable.
Aid meanwhile languishes on the other side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, with Israel and the United Nations trading blame for the logjam, and Gazans suffering the resulting shortages.
Itzik, who declined to give his last name, said lately his cargo “mostly comes from the private sector”.
He described a booming industry that keeps him running the route despite being branded a “traitor” to the Israeli war effort, efforts by right-wing activists to disrupt truck shipments to Gaza.
Israel maintains it lets in enough food to feed the entire Gazan population of 2.4 million. It accuses the United Nations of not effectively distributing aid stacked up on the other side of the checkpoint.
The UN, however, cites “insecurity, damaged roads, the breakdown of law and order, and access limitations” that hamper aid movement from Kerem Shalom to central Gaza.
Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in May regretted that the private sector, though welcome, was “being prioritised” at Kerem Shalom.
The crossing has become the primary conduit for goods into Rafah since early May when Israeli troops seized the nearby Rafah crossing as they began ground operations against Hamas in the area.
Now Kerem Shalom is mostly being used to pump commercial supplies into the territory.
“Right now, the private sector is working better than the aid organisations,” said Shimi Zuaretz, a spokesperson for COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body overseeing Palestinian civilian affairs.
COGAT took journalists on a tour of the checkpoint on Wednesday, displaying crates stuffed with watermelons, cherries, tomatoes, oranges, potatoes and pulses.
Heaving open the gates of the remote desert compound, they allowed a parade of a dozen or so lorries to enter and load up the goods before departing for Gaza. Reporter was prevented from speaking to the Palestinian drivers by the Israeli soldiers leading the tour.
Funnelling supplies into Gaza was difficult even before the war, which began with Hamas’s October 7 attacks on nearby Israeli communities and resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 38,295 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamasterritory.
After initially blocking all deliveries into Gaza, Israel reopened Kerem Shalom in December under international pressure.
An average of 250 trucks now cross the checkpoint daily according to COGAT, still well below UN figure of 500 aid and commercial trucks before the war. —