The United Nations has announced that it will begin providing more armored vehicles and personal protective equipment for its humanitarian assistance operations in the Gaza Strip following approval from the Israeli authorities.
The approval was a response to a UN letter to Israel on security and protection in the Gaza Strip, said Scott Anderson, deputy humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, at a time when the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas is already in its tenth month and law and order have broken down.
The UN has long complained about obstacles to delivering aid to Gaza – Israel inspects and approves all trucks – and says it is also struggling to distribute aid given the “total lawlessness” in the enclave of 2.3 million people, where a global hunger monitor warned last month that there was a high risk of famine.
Anderson said the UN would begin bringing more armored vehicles and protective equipment to Gaza on Tuesday.
“Some communication equipment has also been approved,” he told reporters, such as handheld radios, but added that discussions on a UN request for stable internet access were ongoing.
The UN has stated that it wants communications that do not rely on cell phone towers because they are unreliable.
However, Israeli authorities have security concerns about the potential consequences of Hamas accessing the satellite internet service.
Anderson said the UN must provide the right quantity and quality of aid, but several factors “continue to stand in our way.”
He cited problems including restrictions on movement, the safety of relief workers, unpredictable working hours, communication problems and fuel shortages.
“We have seen a complete breakdown of law and order and essentially seen criminal groups preventing the free flow of aid into Gaza to help the people,” he said.
“The truck drivers we employ are regularly threatened or attacked. They are understandably becoming less and less willing to transport aid from the border crossings to our warehouses and then to those in need,” Anderson said.
He said the UN was sending between 25 and 70 trucks of aid to northern Gaza every day, but there was no commercial access.
Anderson said that in southern Gaza, “we could barely reach 100 trucks on a good day in the last week because of public order problems,” but commercial deliveries were going a little better, “but they are essentially paying protection money to the families in the south and also have armed guards,”
Aid officials say the Gaza Strip needs about 600 trucks of humanitarian and commercial supplies every day to meet the needs of the population.
He said the UN was “in talks with everyone to facilitate the establishment of some kind of police force” and in the meantime was working with the families who are hindering aid deliveries to resolve the problem.
“There are a few families trying to take advantage of this opportunity, and that’s why I’m confident that the police will get the problem under control when we resume their work,” Anderson said.