Gate 96: New crossing brings 'life and death' to Gaza

Lucy Williamson

Gate 96 is nothing more than a hole in the border fence between Israel and Gaza.

Its winding path leading to Gaza City quickly disappeared as the dense evening darkness set in.

When the UN accuses Israel of deliberately obstructing aid flows to Gaza, Israel points to Gate 96 - one of several new aid routes it has approved, along with airdrops and a sea lane from Cyprus.

Along the border fence, seven trucks loaded with food aid are lined up waiting to cross, their engines slowly revving under the sound of artillery fire.

This new crossing point takes them directly to the desperate northern areas of Gaza, avoiding a long and difficult journey through the conflict zone.

But with the United Nations warning that northern Gaza is weeks away from famine, international demands for increased aid have become even more urgent.

Israel says it has facilitated the entry of more than 350 aid trucks into northern Gaza over the past month. Aid agencies say the Gaza Strip as a whole needs 500 trucks per day.

Colonel Moshe Tetro, head of the IDF's Coordination and Liaison Department, which handles approvals for aid convoys, said: "The bottleneck in this chain does not lie with the IDF."

He told the BBC that the army's mission is to "facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza," and that the obstacles lie in the logistical capacity of aid agencies to distribute it on the other side.

He pointed to the trucks waiting to cross, saying the evidence was right in front of us. Twenty trucks were approved to cross that night, he said, but only seven arrived.

"We have taken a lot of measures to increase the volume of humanitarian aid," he said. "But the UN and other international organizations are facing some bottlenecks in terms of the number of trucks, the number of truck drivers, manpower and working hours."

Matthew Hollingworth, country director for the World Food Program, was on board one of the trucks parked next to the border fence that night. He told the BBC that there was a specific reason why the WFP was unable to provide all 20 vehicles.

"In this particular convoy, we were given a maximum of 15 drivers who were vetted by the IDF and allowed to use this route, but we only had seven drivers," he said.

He added that some of the authorized drivers had gone to Gaza City the day before and were stuck there. Even driving an empty truck through Gaza requires approval from the Israeli military.

"We need permission for about 50, 60, 70, 80 truck drivers to use these roads every day," he said. "We need more entry points into northern Gaza and Gaza City, and we need early approvals so we can run multiple convoys every day."

Israel is keen to show the world that it is allowing more aid into Gaza, but says it is not responsible for the amount of aid that actually enters, or the ability of agencies to distribute it on the ground.

International law says something different: Israel has a duty not only to open the gates, but to use all means at its disposal to deliver food and medicine to the people under its control.

Colonel Tetro told me that there is no food shortage in Gaza, and that if Hamas wants to change the situation there, it must end the war.

When asked about the warnings of famine and the images of severely malnourished children in Gaza hospitals, he repeated the same phrases, over and over again.

"There is no famine in Gaza. There is no food shortage," he said.

Gaza's main relief agency, UNRWA, said on Sunday that Israel prevented it from delivering more food to northern Gaza.

Israel says the agency is linked to Hamas and that it will continue to work with organizations "not involved in terrorism."

UNRWA Director Philippe Lazzarini called the ban "outrageous" and accused Israel of deliberately obstructing the aid.

The agency recently attempted to restart the convoys after a two-month hiatus, which began when one of its trucks was bombed during a delivery in January.

At Gate 96, Israeli army vehicles hover around the convoy, before the crossing opens and the trucks move through the night.

This narrow channel between Israel and Gaza is crossed only by aid and the military, bringing food and war, or life and death.

(Source: BBC)