Construction by the Americans of a temporary port in Gaza, announcement of the opening of a maritime corridor between Cyprus and the enclave... The question of access for humanitarian aid has been nagging since the start of the war in the Palestinian territory, in the grip of a major humanitarian crisis and threatened by famine.
Where does aid enter Gaza?
Since the start of the war on October 7, the vast majority of aid reaching the Palestinian territory has been delivered by trucks and through two crossing points.
That of Rafah, in the very south of the Gaza Strip, allows the passage of trucks from Egypt.
It was the first to reopen on October 21 after Israeli bombings in the area.
The one in Kerem Shalom, also located in the south of the Gaza Strip, opened on December 17 and allows the entry of trucks from Israel.
VIDEO.
Gaza: five people killed by humanitarian aid drop
According to the latest figures as of March 6, 14,477 trucks have been able to enter the Palestinian territory through these two crossings since October 21, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
According to Israel, 16,093 trucks entered.
That is an average of 105 per day, a far cry from the 500 trucks which entered Gaza on average daily before the war started on October 7 by the Hamas attack.
What can enter Gaza?
Of the 297,000 tonnes of aid received so far, 200,000 are food: flour, milk, bread, lentils, rice.
Some 176 fuel tankers also entered, including 18,000 tonnes of medical equipment.
But according to Alexandre Fort, logistics coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the Palestinian territories, “anything that can be used for energy production, solar panels and generators for example, is almost always turned away” , most of the time without explanation.
Also read “Living conditions are catastrophic”: a refugee in southern Gaza recounts his daily life
The same goes for electronic equipment, oxygen bottles, refrigerators for medicines or artificial respirators, according to a humanitarian source, while Gaza's health system is exhausted.
Before the war, Israel had already restricted, since Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007, the entry of so-called “dual-use” equipment, that is to say which could, in its eyes, be used for military purposes.
Why the truck traffic jams?
Drastic controls on trucks by Israel are the main reason for the slow delivery, according to humanitarian organizations.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs (Cogat) explains that the volume that can enter is notably “determined by the capacity of humanitarian organizations in the Gaza Strip to absorb this aid”.
According to Alexandre Fort, “hundreds” of trucks are constantly waiting to be inspected on the Egyptian side of the border.
NGOs must provide a precise list of the shipment they wish to bring in and if a product does not meet the criteria, the entire shipment is rejected, he explains.
Also read “We lost everything”: from the hell of Gaza to France, this Palestinian family in search of “a new life”
When the trucks manage to pass, their load is transferred to other Palestinian trucks for further distribution in the Gaza Strip.
But access to the north of the territory, devastated by the Israeli offensive, is not guaranteed.
Another checkpoint manned by Israeli troops in Wadi Gaza (north) is only open intermittently.
On Tuesday, the World Food Program (WFP) announced that one of its north-bound convoys had been blocked in Wadi Gaza and had to turn around before being looted by "a desperate crowd".
What are the alternatives ?
In desperation, the United States, Jordan, France and Egypt resort to airdrops.
On Friday, one of these drops resulted in the deaths of five people west of Gaza City, according to a hospital source.
For the World Food Program (WFP), the volume of aid delivered by air is insignificant compared to the scale of the crisis.
“We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people.
And in this regard, airdrops are not an option to avoid famine,” underlined WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau in an interview with AFPTV.
Also read: Gaza: dropping humanitarian aid by air, an alternative to delivery by truck?
A maritime corridor between Cyprus and Gaza could also be opened on Sunday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Friday.
And US President Joe Biden said he had ordered the US military to establish a port in Gaza allowing “a massive increase” in the amount of aid delivered but this project will take several weeks.
For humanitarian officials, however, facilitating the passage of trucks remains the most effective means.
“There is a very simple solution, (…) it is the opening of land crossings to Gaza, particularly from the north,” insisted the EU commissioner in charge of humanitarian crises, Janez Lenarcic, on Wednesday in Jerusalem.