Aid shipments into southern Gaza are being squeezed out by commercial convoys, humanitarian organisations say, at a time when Israel’s military push into Rafah has choked off supply routes critical to feeding hundreds of thousands of people.
Deliveries of food, medicine and other aid into Gaza fell by two-thirds after Israel began its ground operation on 7 May, UN figures show. But overall the number of trucks entering Gaza rose in May compared with April, according to Israeli officials.
So the private sector is achieving that desired goal of supplyin’ the place. This is bad because it’s not aid?
That does appear to be the complaint:
Aid workers have long called for more trade into Gaza, to complement the supplies they can deliver. Food for sale allows those who can afford it to have a healthier, more varied diet, and potentially take some pressure off the demand for aid.
But if bringing more food to markets comes at the cost of aid deliveries,
Yep.
Another reason why UNRWA should be shut down.
Ah, “genocide”.
Do-gooders gotta do good.
Are we sure that the complaint isn’t that “aid” goes to the terrorists and therefore (in the eyes of UN and NGO aid workers) good, but “trade” goes to the people and therefore bad?
They managed to do this in the 1980s Ethiopian famine didn’t they? Finish off all the farmers the regime hadn’t yet killed by undercutting them.
It seems food from commercial sources is cheaper than the price of “aid” because Hamas steal the latter and sell it at high prices for 100% profit.
Fancy that.
As Glenn Reynolds often says, “Insufficient opportunity for grift”.
“While Kerem Shalom remains officially open, commercial trucks have been prioritised, and the movement of aid remains unpredictable, inconsistent and critically low,” a group of 20 aid agencies warned this week.
20?!
‘and a percentage must be paid to protection groups ‘
Perhaps one of the causes of the problems??
I take no sides in the Canaanite civil war. But the idea of destroying the Aid Agencies certainly appeals. It would probably protect lots of Gaza’s children too.
It seems the two things are in play together here. Hamas steals all the aid, but due to the surplus of freely traded goods, they can’t sell as much as they’d like or get the high prices they want because of the free market.
It does make me wonder why Hamas don’t just exterminate the free market competition though. It’s not as if their reluctant to have Gazan civilian blood on their hands.
The solution therefore is for Hamas to want an end to the free market, so they can really turn up the swinge level on their prices and get the Gazan population really starving for the cameras.
Pallywood. Roll on two. Three, two, one…action!
I don’t know how true this is but as it hasn’t been refuted with a community note there must be a good deal of truth in it:
Doesn’t the media keep reminding us that Hamas are the elected government of Gaza, in which case they aren’t stealing the food. As the local government they are simply taking of possession of it on behalf of the citizenry, it’s just resting in their accounts
“It does make me wonder why Hamas don’t just exterminate the free market competition though.”
One possibility is that the aid is not paid for, so no one really cares who gets it. Food that’s sold though has an owner, and that owner probably has guns to fight for it.
It does say something for the quality of aid though that free food is being passed over for food that is sold. Perhaps the free food comes with too high a price tag attached.
Its interesting how, when there’s all this genocide going on and bombs flying randomly into schools, that these people have the space *and the money* to be able to buy things still.
Its almost like we’re being lied to about how Israel is prosecuting this war?