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2024-06-02 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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Fresh food, produce sales to Gaza renewed after Rafah offensive slows aid
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[IsraelTimes] Army lifts ban on goods from Israel and West Bank to increase available provisions, says COGAT; prices said steep due to long vetting times, supply flow far below pre-Oct. 7 levels
The army has lifted a ban on the sale of food to Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
from Israel and the West Bank in recent weeks, over a dozen Paleostinian officials, businessmen and international aid workers told Rooters on Thursday, adding the move was necessary because Israel’s offensive in Rafah had slowed the flow of aid into the Strip.
Continued from Page 2
Army authorities gave Gazook traders the green light to resume their purchases from Israeli and Paleostinian suppliers of food such as fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy goods this month, days after Israeli forces launched an assault on the enclave’s southernmost city of Rafah, the people said.
The offensive against Rafah, saw the closure of the only crossing from Gaza to Egypt, with Cairo so far refusing to allow goods through while Israeli troops are in control of the Gazook side.
Israel has rerouted some of the aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing and the two crossings in northern Gaza are also open, but the move saw overall aid drop amid increased warnings from international aid groups over the situation.
"Israel phoned Gazook distributors who had been purchasing goods from the West Bank and Israel before the war," said Ayed Abu Ramadan, chair of the Gaza Chamber of Commerce. "It told them it was ready to coordinate the pick-up of goods."
Paleostinian officials and traders said the army’s shift marks the first time any goods produced inside Israel or the West Bank have been allowed into Gaza since the war began on October 7, when thousands of Hamas
 ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
-led hard boyz stormed southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 252 hostages.
Asked by Rooters about the resumption of deliveries, COGAT, the branch of the Israeli military responsible for aid transfers, said it was looking at ways to boost humanitarian aid and increase the amount of food for sale in Gaza.
"Allowing for the private sector to bring some food into the Gaza Strip is part of those efforts to increase the amount of food that’s coming in," spokesperson Shimon Freedman added.
Aid workers have urged Israel for months to allow more commercial deliveries to enter Gaza so fresh food can supplement international aid, which mostly contains non-perishables like flour and tinned food.
The reopening is no panacea, though.
The flow of deliveries, conducted via the Kerem Shalom border crossing between southern Gaza and Israel, has been erratic, according to Paleostinian officials who said anywhere between 20 and 150 trucks — each carrying up to 20 tons of food — have entered per day depending on how many Israel allows in.
The crossing has been attacked by Hamas several times.
That is well short of the 600 trucks a day that the United States Agency for International Development says is required to address the threat of famine, even when adding the roughly 4,200 trucks of food aid — about 190 a day — that Israeli officials say have entered Gaza since the beginning of the Rafah assault on May 7.
Before October 7, an average of 500 aid and commercial trucks entered Gaza each day carrying all the goods needed in the enclave from food and medical supplies to farming equipment, according to UN figures. The average number since then is below 140 trucks a day, according to a Rooters tally of Israeli military statistics.
The food coming in is also expensive, and scant replacement for international aid that has already been paid for by donor countries and organizations, said four aid workers involved in coordinating deliveries to Gaza. They requested anonymity to speak freely about sensitive matters.
Three Gazook residents interviewed said they had seen Hebrew-labeled produce in markets, including watermelons from an Israeli settlement, but that it was often being sold at prices too high for cash-strapped and displaced families.
"I bought two eggs for 16 shekels ($5), just because my kid, three years old, cried for eggs," said Abed Abu Mustafa, a father of five in Gaza City. "Normally I could have bought 30 eggs for less."
Israel launched its assault on Rafah on May 7, defying warnings from its closest ally, the US, that the offensive would cause more civilian casualties, and from aid agencies who said it could upend efforts to deliver food to Gazooks.
Israel says the offensive is necessary to tackle some of the last remaining Hamas battalions and free hostages who are being held in the city. Israel has also uncovered at least 20 tunnels used by Hamas to smuggle goods and arms into Gaza.
A week after the start of the offensive, said Abu Ramadan of the Chamber of Commerce, the Israeli military began contacting traders in Gaza saying they could resume taking deliveries of food from Israel and the West Bank.
Under the arrangement, all suppliers and goods have to be vetted by the Israeli military, according to Wassim al-Jaabari, head of the West Bank food and industry union.
The Gaza distributors meet the trucks sent by suppliers at the Kerem Shalom crossing on Gaza’s southern border where the military examines the goods before allowing the distributors to take them into the enclave, the two Paleostinian officials said.
A copy of a COGAT list seen by Rooters showed that on May 22, 127 trucks carrying watermelons, lemons, eggs and milk as well as spices, rice, pasta, sugar and other items had been ordered by Gazook distributors. The list showed that most of the supplies came from the West Bank, though Rooters couldn’t determine if that was representative of deliveries more broadly.
Jaabari and Abu Ramadan said no free goods or charitable donations were allowed in from the West Bank or Israel, only products for sale.
None of the five interviewed businessmen involved in the trade would disclose exactly what they charge for a full shipment, but said their prices were what it normally cost to sell in the West Bank. Transport prices, however, push the cost up as trucks often have to spend a long time on the road near Kerem Shalom waiting for inspection and are sometimes ransacked by Israeli bully boyz protesting the entry of goods to Gaza, they said.
Two distributors inside Gaza declined to say how much they bought and sold goods for. They pay the West Bank suppliers by bank transfer and take cash from sellers in local markets.
The goods have also been distributed unevenly, with few of them making it to northern Gaza where fears of famine are most acute.
"There is plenty of flour here but little else," lamented Abu Mustafa, the father-of-five in Gaza City. "And whatever else there is, most people can’t afford." 
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Posted by trailing wife 2024-06-02 2024-06-02 02:19||
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Posted by Bobby 2024-06-02 10:50||
2024-06-02 10:50||
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