JAKARTA: Some trucks carrying humanitarian assistance from Indonesia have managed to enter Gaza, Indonesian volunteers confirmed, despite Israeli attacks on convoys and the blocking of critical aid.
Thousands of aid trucks have been waiting to enter Gaza on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, with the UN saying on Tuesday that convoys carrying humanitarian assistance have been targeted by Israeli attacks and prevented from reaching people in need.
Several trucks carrying wheat flour and food packages from the Indonesian NGO Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, or MER-C, are among the few that managed to enter Gaza recently, volunteers from the organization said.
The volunteers, Fikri Rofiul Haq and Reza Aldilla Kurniawan, chose to stay in Gaza when Israeli attacks on the besieged territory escalated in October. They were volunteering at the MER-C-funded Indonesia Hospital in northern Gaza. When the hospital was destroyed by the Israeli military, they sought safety in the southern part of the enclave.
“The aid delivery went through many obstacles, including a long authorization process and also lengthy inspection by Israeli officials, which have resulted in many of the food packages going bad,” Haq told Arab News on Wednesday.
Thousands of food packages were distributed last weekend in central and southern Gaza. MER-C volunteers steered clear from the enclave’s north as they feared being targeted by the Israeli military.
“All this aid from the Indonesian people through MER-C faces potential attacks by Israel,” Haq said. “Until this very second, Israeli forces continue to attack and they are attacking randomly — we never know when they might launch their assault.”
About 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s air and ground campaign in Gaza. The UN has warned that hundreds of thousands of people are now on the brink of famine as the enclave’s population relies on inadequate food aid to survive.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said on Monday that the number of food aid trucks entering Gaza had decreased by about one-third since the International Court of Justice ruled last month that Israel must do everything to prevent genocidal acts in the besieged territory, and take “immediate and effective measures” for aid provision.
“Israel continues to obstruct the provision of basic services and the entry and distribution within Gaza of fuel and lifesaving aid, acts of collective punishment that amount to war crimes and include the use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war,” HRW said in a statement.
