Serving under siege

Israel last week geared up to invade and reoccupy the whole of Gaza on the 20th anniversary of the Aug.15 beginning of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s withdrawal from the strip. Incumbent Benyamini Netanyahu – who opposed Sharon’s pull out – has made no plans for the strip’s displaced 2.3 million Palestinians. Most have taken refuge in unoccupied Gaza City in the north and Rafah and Deir al-Balah the south which, combined, constitute 25 per cent of the territory of the narrow coastal strip. 

Braving Israeli bombs, bullets and interference World Central Kitchen (WCK) founder Jose Andres has visited Gaza to promote a massive increase in humanitarian aid to Gazans. Andres met with WCK teams at a high-capacity kitchen, a bakery, and two other facilities at Deir al-Balah. WCK was created in 2010 by Spanish-US chef and restauranteur Andres in response to an earthquake in Haiti and has since operated in dozens of countries where hunger is the result of war, natural disaster, and poverty. In April 2024, seven WCK employees – six people with foreign citizenship and a Palestinian driver – were killed in Deir al-Balah by Israeli airstrikes. WCK paused operations briefly to consider risks to staff before resuming work.

WCK has served more than 145 million meals in Gaza and 2 million in Israel since the start of the war in October 2023. Israel’s ongoing disruption and reduction of food supplies beginning on March 2 has compelled WCK to cut meals to about 200,000 a day. Nevertheless, Andres seeks to accelerate production rapidly to “an unprecedented one million hot meals a day,” according to WCK’S news release. “The ambitious plan requires an increase to five high-capacity field kitchens and enough supplies to outfit scores of smaller community kitchens at the neighbourhood level throughout Gaza.” To accomplish this feat, WCK will require “extended supply chain access through multiple entry points and the ability to send in more than 100 trucks daily, as well as permission to directly import fuel.” UN aid agencies say 600 trucks a day are needed to provide Gazans with sufficient supplies. This rises to more than 1,000 to compensate for the lack of aid for five months.

Andres met with Israeli hostage families and top Israeli and US officials while in the region. “We are on the side of humanity and feeding people,” he stated. “We urge compassion, love, and care for both Palestinians and Israelis. We firmly believe that in the worst of situations, the best of humanity shows up. We continue our calls for a ceasefire, the hostages to be released, and an end to this cruelty and suffering on all sides.” He all too clearly is an optimist.

Andres’s visit coincided with a peak in Gaza’s hunger crisis. The Norwegian Refugee Council reports that instead of facilitating the entry into Gaza of urgently needed food, Israel has “rejected requests from dozens of NGOs [non-governmental organisations] to bring in lifesaving goods,” arguing that these agencies are “not authorised to deliver aid. In July alone, over 60 requests were denied under this justification.” This has relegated millions of dollars’ worth of supplies to warehouses in Egypt and Jordan or stuck in the Israeli port of Ashdod while Gazans face starvation. Many of these NGOs have efficiently and safely delivered aid to Gaza for decades. 

The Norwegian Refugee Council says Israel adopted an obstructive policy in March which excludes NGOs “on the basis of vague and politicised criteria, such as alleged ‘delegitimisation’ of the state of Israel.” This policy is “designed to control independent organisations, silence advocacy, and censor humanitarian reporting.” Obstruction is “inconsistent with established international law as it entrenches Israel’s control and annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory,” the Council stated. Among the agencies rejected are mainstream US-based CARE and Britain-founded Oxfam which operate freely in dozens of countries across the world where there is need.

Israel – partnered by the US – has tried to restrict delivery of supplies to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) which began operations at the end of May in areas under Israeli military control. Early this month, UN experts called for the dismantling of GHF which they said is an “utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law. The entanglement of Israeli intelligence, US contractors and ambiguous non-governmental entities underlines the urgent need for robust international oversight and action under UN auspices.”  

While UN agencies had formerly delivered and dispersed aid continually, efficiently and safely at 400 sites in Gaza, GHF operates three sites in the south and one in the centre where thousands of desperate Palestinians gather for food. Scores are shot by Israeli troops. At least 859 people have been killed and hundreds wounded around GHF sites. More than 61,900 Gazans have been killed and 53,000 wounded since Israel launched its latest Gaza war in October 2023 after an attack on southern Israel which killed 1,139 and abducted 250. Gaza’s Health Ministry reports 227 malnutrition deaths, including 93 children in recent weeks. 

The UN experts stated, “Blocking or delaying aid is not just inhumane – it is a war crime where it is intended to starve civilians and in the context of a well-documented and globally denounced genocide.” The experts urged UN member states to impose a “full arms embargo on Israel due to its violations of international law, and suspend trade and investment agreements that may result in harming the Palestinians and hold corporate entities accountable,” the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reported.

 Photo: AFP