Israel ‘turned back aid’ after finding children’s scissors in package, UN agency claims
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Israel turned back a truck loaded with tons of aid for Gaza after it was found to contain scissors from children’s medical kits, a United Nations relief agency has said.
The UN published a picture of the offending item as it criticised Israel for strict inspections it claims are exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the territory.
Aid agencies have also raised the alarm about inspections by the Israeli military they say are excessive, claiming some trucks have been blocked for carrying dates, the stones of which could be thrown at soldiers.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency which handles most of the aid in Gaza, said the medical scissors were blocked because Israel ruled they had a “dual use”.
“A truck loaded with aid has just been turned back because it had scissors used in children’s medical kits,” he said, publishing a picture of the item.
“The clearance of humanitarian supplies and the delivery of basic and critical items need to be facilitated and accelerated. The lives of two million people depend on that, there is no time to waste,” he added.
Israel denied the incident happened, responding to Mr Lazzarini on social media saying that “lying is a sign of desperation”.
Janti Soeripto, Save the Children’s US president and chief executive who visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing with a UN convoy in January, recently claimed other unusual items were blocking aid trucks.
She told CNN that toys were rejected because they were in a wooden box rather than a cardboard box, sleeping bags were denied because they had zippers, and sanitary pads were turned back because they were in a hygiene kit that included a nail clipper.
Chris Van Hollen, a US senator, recently described a massive warehouse at al Arish full of unused products, including water-testing kits, medical tools to deliver babies, oxygen tanks and even tents.
“A whole array of goods that had been turned back in what seemed like a totally arbitrary process… From looking at these goods, there was no plausible argument that they were going to be used for weapons,” he said.
Aid ship sets sail
On Tuesday morning, the first ship bringing aid to Gaza set sail from Cyprus, testing Washington’s plan to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza by sea.
The charity ship, Open Arms, left the Cypriot port of Larnaca, towing a barge with 200 tonnes of ready meals, flour and rice. It is expected to reach Gaza’s Mediterranean coast in about two days, Cypriot officials said.
If successful, the pilot mission will break Israel’s naval blockade, imposed on the territory in 2007, and pave the way for supplies from the US. Joe Biden, the US president, has announced plans to build a floating pier off Gaza to receive aid.
Major rights groups, however, criticised the plan as too costly and inefficient and they urged the West to press Israel to open more land crossings to bring aid in by trucks.
World Central Kitchen (WCK), the NGO behind the shipment, acknowledged the challenges but defended its decision to press on with the plan.
“The greatest failure right now would be failing to try,” Jose Andres, WCK’s founder, and Erin Gore, its CEO, said in a joint statement. They added that the aim was to establish a sea route to send barges with “millions of meals continuously headed towards Gaza”.
“Millions of people are suffering and food is the difference between life or death for many,” they said.
Mr Andres also posted a photo on social media, showing construction equipment apparently levelling the ground close to the shore in Gaza, saying WCK had hired people in the area to build a small jetty to receive the shipment.
With no construction materials allowed to enter Gaza, Palestinians there are apparently building the jetty with the rubble of destroyed buildings, according to WCK.
The organisation said it had a further 500 tonnes of aid in Cyprus ready for dispatch.
Israel’s foreign ministry has welcomed Washington’s plan to establish a sea route to Gaza but insisted that all cargo heading there would need to be inspected by Israeli staff “according to Israeli standards”.
