With only the Rafah crossing open for transit, extra screenings are unlikely to affect the actual volume of aid entering Gaza
\nGaza
\nIsrael has said it will set up additional inspection checkpoints for humanitarian aid trucks bound for the Gaza Strip, but they will only be allowed to enter through a single border crossing which will have little effect on the actual supplies reaching the besieged enclave.
\nThe Rafah crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt is the only point where a limited amount of aid is allowed to enter the territory, and the bottlenecked frontier has been unable to cope with the volume of vehicles heading in.
\n\u201cIn theory [the extra inspections points] should help,\u201d as more trucks would be going through the required security process, Al Jazeera\u2019s Alan Fisher reported from occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday, of the point at Karem Abu Salem, known as Kerem Shalom in Israel. Similar checks were already being carried out at the Nitzana post.
\n\u201cBut there are people within the Israeli government who don\u2019t want to see trucks travelling from Israel into Gaza delivering aid,\u201d so the trucks are forced to drive around to reach the Rafah crossing in Egypt, our correspondent said.
\nThis then leaves the reality on the ground unchanged since Rafah cannot process so many trucks in one day and ultimately the extra screenings will not affect the actual aid entering Gaza.
\nCompounding this is the fact that the Red Cross feels that the Rafah crossing is unsafe since Israel\u2019s assault is now focused on southern Gaza, where destroyed roads further exacerbate the peril facing the aid deliveries, Fisher said.
\nDespite repeated calls from world leaders, international humanitarian groups and United Nations officials to allow more aid into Gaza, Israel stressed on Monday that no new direct crossings will be opened, but that Kerem Shalom will be used to carry out checks before sending the trucks through Rafah.
\n\u201cThis is being done to improve the volume of security screenings of aid entering Gaza via the Rafah Crossing and will enable us to double the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza,\u201d the army said on X.
\nThe additional checkpoint will screen \u201ctrucks containing water, food, medical supplies and shelter equipment\u201d, according to a joint statement from the Israeli army and COGAT, the defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs.
\nCurrently, only about 100 trucks cross into Gaza through Rafah daily, UN humanitarian agency OCHA said at the weekend. This is only half of the bare minimum 200 recommended by the UN to meet the basic needs of the population, whereas the number stood at 500 before the war.
\nPhilippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), described an \u201cimplosion of civil order\u201d in which Gaza Palestinians who had not eaten for days looted aid distribution centres and stopped trucks on roads as they tried to secure supplies for their families.
\nOn Tuesday, he called for \u201can end to this hell on earth\u201d.
\n\u201cThe assault on southern Gaza has been no less than the north. It\u2019s raging through Khan Younis at the moment, and it is threatening Rafah. The compression of the population is greater. We cannot be sure of any of our points of operation to be safe,\u201d Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian affairs coordinator, told Al Jazeera.
\nGriffiths added that UN aid workers were operating on a form of \u201chumanitarian opportunism\u201d in the Gaza Strip which is not the typical characteristic of a humanitarian operation, which includes a level of dependability and safety, both for aid workers and for the people they serve.
\nThe UN General Assembly will meet later on Tuesday to discuss the humanitarian crisis and call for a pause in hostilities, after the United States last week vetoed a UN Security Council resolution for a truce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With only the Rafah crossing open for transit, extra screenings are unlikely to affect the actual volume of aid entering Gaza Gaza Israel has said it will set up additional inspection checkpoints for humanitarian aid trucks bound for the Gaza Strip, but they will only be allowed to enter through a single border crossing which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-374024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n