The struggle to get aid into Gaza

To get aid into Gaza, by land, the journey begins in a giant parking lot just outside of the southern West Bank city of Hebron. 

Here, at the Tarqumiya checkpoint, essential items bound for Gaza are transferred from trucks with Palestinian license plates — which brought the goods from Jordan — to Israeli ones, so the loads can be driven across Israel. 

On an early morning in mid-June, workers offloaded and reloaded convoys filled with items like flour, watermelon and pickled vegetables. Then, the trucks went through a security screening before taking the precious cargo on the road across southern Israel to the Kerem Shalom checkpoint into Gaza. 

“Luckily, we had 27 trucks leave the checkpoint this morning with no issues, but on other days, you just never know what the day will bring,” said Addel Kiswani, a truck dispatcher based out of Hebron.

Whether it’s by land, sea, or air, delivering basic necessities to the territory, since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, has been a logistical nightmare. To make up for a backlog in aid, the Israeli government has been allowing more goods to go in from the private sector, but that method, too, has been fraught.

For one, these trips have become risky for the truck drivers — most of whom are Palestinian-Israelis. 

For months now, groups of far-right activists have been seen putting sand in truck engines, sometimes setting the vehicles on fire and destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods. 

The activists, who have been sanctioned by the US, say they believe that no aid should be entering Gaza until the 120 hostages Hamas is holding are released back into Israel.

One driver showed The World a video of around 100 activists attacking his truck as it was leaving the Tarqumiya checkpoint in early June.

“They punctured my wheels, broke my window glass and even the dashboard,” said the driver, who refused to give his name over concerns for his own safety. 

He said the Israeli army eventually intervened and brought him to safety — and he remains extremely cautious on the road. 

Long waits, spoiling food

When the truck drivers arrive at the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, it’s more logistics, and more waiting; first, to go through security again, and then, to unload and reload their hauls, this time, onto a Palestinian truck, to travel through Gaza.

Recently, a group of truck drivers drinking their morning coffee as they were stalled there, told The World that they’re reluctant to speak to journalists — because some drivers have been punished after being quoted in foreign media. 

But one driver, who wouldn’t give his name, said that he’d been waiting in this lot since 3 a.m., or about 11 hours. 

This has become the new normal since the start of the war, he said. Sometimes, he waits in this lot for up to three days, sleeping in his truck. Meanwhile, the goods sit in the heat, he added, at the risk of spoiling. 

According to COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for overseeing the crossings, about 250 trucks now cross the checkpoint daily, but that number is still well below the UN figure of 500 aid and commercial trucks that passed through every day before the start of the war.

Shimon Friedman, who works with COGAT, said that there is no limit on the amount of aid allowed into Gaza, and that the majority of the bottlenecks are being caused on the Gaza side of the border. 

He said that this is a problem for the aid organizations to figure out. 

“[Israel] has taken many, many steps to increase our inspection capabilities And the international organizations haven’t taken similar steps,” Friedman said. 

He continued: “Where we’re seeing a bottleneck is on the other side of the border on the Gazan side, that of distributing, distributing the aid. There are around 900 trucks worth of aid waiting on the Gazan side of Kerem Shalom, waiting to be distributed right now. So, at the moment, that’s where we see the biggest backlog.”

‘One day, the crossing is open. The other day, it’s closed’

But some aid officials and several logistics coordinators told The World that they blame Israel for imposing vague guidelines on what’s allowed in. 

On the other side of the checkpoint, Ayed Abu Ramadan runs the Gaza Chamber of Commerce, which deals with commercial goods from the private sector as opposed to aid.

He said that whether it’s aid or commercial goods, Israel has made the distribution of food and other products next to impossible. 

First, he said, Israel’s restrictions on delivery are confusing.

“One day, the crossing is open. The other day, it’s closed. One day, this is allowed. The other day, no, it’s not allowed. We are totally lost with what the Israelis are allowing and when they are allowing us.” 

On top of that, Abu Ramadan said that Israel has killed many of Gaza’s policemen because they’re Hamas members, so there’s no one to prevent looting. 

One of the drivers waiting in the Kerem Shalom lot showed a recent video of people grabbing boxes of macaroni.

When he was asked whom he feels is responsible for the difficulties, he simply shrugged his shoulders. 

“There’s a war — it’s hard to blame anyone when people are being killed,” he said, adding, “I’m an Arab-Israeli, and for all my life, I’ve wanted nothing but peace.”