In Brief: Gaza aid waiting at border crossing
TEL AVIV, 9 June 2010 (IRIN) – Forty-eight trucks with humanitarian aid seized from the aid flotilla bound for Gaza on 1 June are stuck at the Kerem Shalom crossing and in Israeli Defense ministry warehouses.
A week after the supplies, including medical aid, wheelchairs, toys and cement seized from the aid flotilla on 1 June were unloaded, Hamas, which is running the Gaza Strip, will not allow the materials to enter, according to Israeli media reports. Hamas continues to insist the shipment should not be brought in through the land crossings, the Israeli Ynetnews.com website stated on 7 June.
Major Guy Inbar, spokesman for the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, told IRIN that COGAT would keep trying to coordinate the transfer with the Palestinian authority and international organizations, including of cement, which Israel rarely allows into Gaza, for ''specific humanitarian projects''.
An Israeli Defense Force spokesperson said 484 truckloads of supplies were sent into Gaza in the first five days of June, including baby food, rice, cooking oil and medical supplies.
td/at/mw
Subject: Access and movement, Closures/Curfews/Blockades, Gaza Strip, Humanitarian relief
Publication Date: 09/06/2010