Since May 27, the Israeli army has allowed the entry of a limited number of aid trucks into Gaza. Some of them belonged to the UN’s World Food Program (WFP), entering through the northern Zikim crossing or Karam Abu Salem to the south. The majority of them have been looted, while others have been set upon by starving Palestinians. In many instances, the Israeli army opened fire on the crowds and trucks alike. But there were some convoys that got through without incident, enjoying armed security escorts until arriving at their destination. These trucks were owned by private merchants in the Strip.
According to the Gaza Government Media Office, only 941 aid trucks have entered the Zikim crossing since May 27, while 287 commercial trucks belonging to Palestinian merchants have been let in.
“In both cases, what is allowed in is a drop in the ocean of the actual daily needs of Gaza and its population of 2.4 million, including 1.2 million children,” Ismail Thawabta, the director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Mondoweiss.
But while the majority of the 941 trucks have been looted through the system of so-called “self-distribution,” the private trucks remain unmolested because the merchants pay large “entry fees” to the Israeli army worth hundreds of thousands of shekels, according to a merchant who spoke to Mondoweiss on the condition of anonymity. The source added that merchants also allot sizable funds to hiring private security escorts.
According to Ismail Thawabta, the merchants bring in the trucks through middlemen who coordinate with the Israeli authorities.
These middlemen operate as a logistical link, Thawabta said, with limited permits provided to a few dozen trucks each day. Still, they do not represent a real flow of commodities to the Gaza Strip’s markets, as they are subject to tightly controlled regulations regarding the type and quantity of commodities. “This is the occupation’s framework of managing the famine, instead of ending it,” Thawabta explained.
Earlier in the war, Gaza’s police force attempted to secure aid convoys, but Israel has systematically targeted them as part of its policy to dismantle Hamas’s local civilian governance system, including the police force and employees of the Gaza Ministry of Interior.
“The Israeli army has killed more than 780 government security individuals so far,” Thawabta told Mondoweiss.
Engineering starvation
A Gaza-based merchant who preferred to remain anonymous told Mondoweiss that the amounts private businesses pay to bring in trucks are determined by the Israeli military. It also decides which materials to let in, often rejecting items.
The merchant explained that each truck shipment costs 100,000 shekels (nearly $30,000), which he pays to the Israeli military as an “entry fee.”
“Upon the arrival of the trucks to Gaza, the merchants pay another 100,000 shekels to a security company to guarantee that the trucks reach merchant stores,” the merchant said.
The merchant added that the security coordination involved is carried out directly between merchants and the security company, without any involvement from the civil government. He noted that the trucks the Israeli army suspects of being protected by Hamas civil government agents are targeted before reaching the stores, which is what led merchants to resort to this security company in the first place. Therefore, merchants prefer to rely on private security companies instead of the police to protect their trucks.
“The consumer is the one who bears all these payments through the very high price of goods,” the merchant admitted. “Due to the scarcity of food, the amount available sells for high prices.”
Even some electronics have been brought in, the merchant said, and their prices are astronomical. “A mobile phone can reach 20,000 shekels [about $6,000],” he explained.
Muhammad Abdul Salam, a security officer at al-Ikhlas Security, a newly established company in Gaza, told Mondoweiss that his company does not secure any of the free aid trucks that come through and is only tasked with protecting merchant convoys.
Abdul Salam said merchants notify the security company of their trucks’ entry times, often in the northern part of the Strip near the Zikim crossing, after which 10 to 15 men are sent to accompany the convoy.
“The security force consists of over 600 armed personnel,” he said, clarifying that security personnel are often armed with pistols or Kalashnikov rifles.
Abdul Salam said that they have no orders to attack or kill anyone, but that their sole mission is to protect the trucks, even if it means risking their lives. “We are aware that the Israeli army may target us, but so far, none of our members or those of other private security companies have been targeted,” he said.
Ismail Thawabta described this selective policy of allowing through merchant goods sold at exorbitant prices while hampering the entry of free aid is a systematic policy of “engineering starvation.”
“The occupation is carrying out a dual goal,” Thawabta explained. “Depriving the population of the free aid it needs, and creating chaos in the distribution of food.”
This makes it difficult for food to reach the people who need it, and the food that does manage to reach the market remains unattainable in price. “This deepens the crisis and turns hunger into a tool for collective punishment,” Thawabta added.
By: Tareq S. Hajjaj
Source: Mondoweiss
