What's really going on with aid deliveries into Gaza? Let's start with two numbers that everyone seems to agree on:
- Before the war, about 500 trucks entered Gaza daily. Those weren't all food and medicine, of course, but that much capacity existed.
- After the war started, the number of aid trucks started very low and has increased gradually but erratically since then. In March, about 150 aid trucks entered daily.
.
So about 150 trucks get in each day, but here's the question that prompted me to look into this: How many trucks try to enter Gaza? From NBC News:
“They limit the number of trucks that can pass,” Mohamed Nossair, head of operations at the Egyptian Red Crescent, said of Israeli officials.... Unclear restrictions imposed by Israel have resulted in an average of 20 to 25 trucks turned away every day, about a fifth of the number that end up crossing into Gaza, he said.
This suggests that only 170 trucks are available for Gaza even if Israel lets everything through. But then there's this from Reuters:
In mid-March, a line of trucks stretched for 3 kilometers along a desert road near a crossing point from Israel into the Gaza Strip.... About 50 kilometers from Gaza, more aid trucks — some 2,400 in total — were sitting idle this month in the Egyptian city of Al Arish, according to an Egyptian Red Crescent official.
Three kilometers is not as much as it sounds like. Maybe 400 trucks? Still, it suggests that more than 170 trucks are ready and waiting if Israel would let them in. Maybe.
Now consider this from the very start of the war:
We need to start with a serious number of trucks going in and we need to build up to 100 trucks a day," the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths told CNN Europe.
We've been over 100 trucks per day for months, but apparently that's nowhere near enough. Recent estimates put Gaza's needs at about 300 trucks per day. Why? Did the UN simply miscalculate? Or, as Israel alleges, is it because Hamas steals huge amounts of food and medical aid?
In any case, are 300 truckfuls of aid even available? This is what I'm most curious about but I can't find anything reliable about it. Transit capacity is a little easier: On a few occasions as many as 240 trucks have entered Gaza in a single day, which means that Israel is capable of inspecting and approving that many. This is pretty close to what's needed.
In southern Gaza, at least, this means that if the aid is available and Hamas doesn't steal it and Israel bestirs itself to perform at a level it's proven it can maintain, there should be roughly enough aid to go around. Certainly enough to stay far away from famine.
It's a different story in the north. Southern Gaza is dangerous, but if aid is available and Israel lets it through, it can reach refugees in Rafah and elsewhere. The route into northern Gaza, by contrast, is so dangerous that very few aid agencies are willing to risk making deliveries. This is a far more difficult problem, and probably requires Israeli military escorts to solve it. This might be in the works, but time will tell.
"Inspecting" trucks under routine non-war conditions is one thing. "Inspecting" trucks going to a place where murderous fanatics with bottomless outside funding are trying to get weapons smuggled in is another. I would like to know more about the trucks that were turned away.
Bottomless funding? From whom? Iran isn't exactly a super rich country and there's a reason they fund things like militias - because they don't have the dough to do more than wage asymmetrical warfare (and they're definitely throwing their full weight around on something like supporting Hamas). That's the opposite of bottomless. Was there another country that's allegedly (and credibly) funding Hamas?
Qatar plays a malign role...most everywhere.
I particularly like how they paid the Afghan government to quit, abandon their army and allow the Taliban to easily take Afghansitan. This story and the clear evidence has been so purposefully ignored as to be amazing. After Quote see link, for documents, etc.:
^^^^^^
The letters also further highlight that the money was granted to all three prominent leaders to avoid resisting the Taliban fighters.
The documents allegedly show that Ashraf Ghani received money to avoid resistance. In contrast, Dostum and Noor received money from the Qatar government not to fight against the Taliban in Northern Afghanistan.
^^^^^^^^
https://www.khaama.com/leaked-documents-show-qatar-bribed-prominent-leaders-a-month-before-the-collapse-of-afghanistan/
Likewise Gaza.
Best Wishes, Traveller
and here I thought it was donnie who refused to allow the government of Afghanistan any part of "his" negotiations. I would have quit too.
It's a malign role to *checks assertion* pay people for a peaceful settlement?
You or I may not like the outcome, but fewer people were killed.
Before, Gaza had some infrastructure--running water, sewers, fuel, etc. Now it doesn't. Sending in water and cooking fuel will take a lot of trucks.
Good points.
Then "we" have "representatives" like Republican Congressman Tim Walberg of Mississippi who suggest we nuke Gaza.
Might I suggest we test out his suggestion on Mississippi first?
Exactly!
“Or, as Israel alleges, is it because Hamas steals huge amounts of food and medical aid?”
Hamas just resells what it steals, so this wouldn’t change how much is needed.
Not only is deliberately starvation a war crime, it is one of the cruelest forms. Anyone defending it is morally abhorrent and those directly involved should be tried and convicted of war crimes and receive the harshest punishments allowed under the law.
Re the 100 number given at the beginning of the war…
That was then, this is now, and I imagine the situation has gotten much worse since the start of the war. That UN relief officer prob didn’t realize how bad this would get.
That said, a recently released hostage reports Hamas moves hostages in ambulances to hide them and further their war crimes. Once again we have zero reason to believe anything Hamas cries or wails about, they are degenerate genocidal liars and maniacs. Wipe them out.
"Once again we have zero reason to believe anything Hamas cries or wails about, they are degenerate genocidal liars and maniacs"
Replace Hamas for Israel under Nethanyahu and your comment is equally accurate.
So they should transport them in military vehicles and get them killed?
What are you suggesting is the war crime here!
Because you turn around and ask for a holocaust.
Moving hostages in unmarked vehicles would risk drawing fire from the IDF. The hostages are safer in ambulances.
"Yoav Gallant, the minister of defense who called Israel’s Palestinian foes “human animals,” said of Gaza: “We will eliminate everything.” Galit Distel-Atbaryan, a Knesset member who until recently was minister of information under Netanyahu, vowed that Israel would “erase all of Gaza from the face of the earth,” adding that “the Gazan monsters will fly to the southern fence and try to enter Egyptian territory or they will die and their death will be evil.”"
Yes, if only the Isreali military could protect the food convoys, northern gaza could be fed. Gaza is starving because Hamas steals evrything that the world's most moral army tries so hard to provide.
And geez, how many free meals do they want anyway? I heard 100 trucks/day is plenty. I think they are probably getting enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhVV2_mub84
What happens to the food Hamas steals?
Hint: It is sold.
So Hamas is stealing food aid meant for hungry citizens of territory it controls and selling it for profit? I would say that this is about as vile as it gets, but Hamas has already already done far more vile things.
Where would this profit come from? What would they sell it for? First born?
This is PURPORTEDLY stolen by "Hamas."
Who says that?
Israel.
Does Israel lie often?
All the time: see, for example, the UNRWA workers for Hamas.
or the beheaded babies.
or the Command Center under al-Shifa hospital
Ah yes, let's just assume that Hamas is stealing aid. Or maybe we could listen to David Satterfield:
"The top US diplomat involved in humanitarian assistance for Gaza denied allegations that Hamas has stolen aid and commercial shipments into the enclave, saying that no Israeli official has presented him or the Biden administration with “specific evidence of diversion or theft of assistance.”"
Yep, as always, Isreal makes claims with 0 evidence.
Then there's the fact that Isreal has killed police officers who are supposed to protect the convoys, some of whom were Hamas but others who weren't. As a result, the police now refuse to protect the convoys..
https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-envoy-israel-hasnt-provided-specific-evidence-hamas-is-stealing-aid-shipments/
To who? With what money, Ogemaniac?
First money. Then barter. Then whatever favors they can do for Hamas, including prostitution.
Sadly the strong robbing and raping the weak is the norm during famine.
Okay, so Hamas has been the elected government of Gaza literally from Day One, which is why Israel has blockaded and been attempting to slowly starve Gaza since that election decades ago.
Hamas "steals"? aid? Or accepts the aid and distributes it in an organized manner? As others have pointed out, Israel of course provides zero evidence for any of its assertions. Hey, asking for "evidence" is ANTISEMITIC!!
So, it's more than likely that the remnants of Gaza's government (Hamaas) are trying to make aid available in an organized fashion. That isn't what Israel wants. They want food riots so they can open fire on the desperate, hungry people. They want -- and have so stated!! -- a future "government" of Gaza run by the criminal gangs.
I note in passing that so-called "stolen" food is what's keeping the Jewish hostages alive. They're not suffering like the civilian population in Gaza. They're also not suffering like the Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza that Israel has picked up, just as more harassment, who are beaten, raped, and tortured in Israeli prisons.
Or we could dream up a 3rd pary organzation that could be in charge of distributing aid. Let's just call it UNRWA for lack of a better term.
Oh wait, looks like 0.00001% of our new employees MIGHT have connectiosn with Hamas. So let's cut off all the funding even though no evidence of their ties to Hamas has been provided. And they were all vetted by Israel.
Hamas won AN election in Gaza in January 2006. They made an effort to present themselves as more competent and effective than the Palestinian Authority (not that hard to do back then). AFAIK, no further elections have been held in Gaza since and Hamas doesn't much care about the opinions of any non-Hamas Palestinians.
Saying Hamas has been the elected government of Gaza since "Day One" (whenever that is, but presumably October 7) is like saying Hitler and the Nazis were the elected government of Germany since "Day One" - it's not true except in the sense that, before they killed any semblance of democracy in their country, they were in fact elected to hold office IN JANUARY 2006.
18 years and 2 months ago.
18 YEARS ago.
Are you really saying that Israeli hostages that were kidnapped by Hamas on 10/7 "are not suffering"? WTF is wrong with you?
As you stated, asking for evidence is not anti-Semitic. But you're certainly showing your anti-Semitism in other ways.
I think you could be a bit more fair and take "They're not suffering like the civilian population in Gaza" to mean "They're not suffering *as much as* the civilian population in Gaza" rather than your "are not suffering" take.
This is probably true on average but it is a distinction without a difference. They are civilian vitims of a war crime in constant fear for their lives, that is enough suffering that it serves no point to diminish it by comparison to anything else.
"the world's most moral army tries so hard to provide"
Is this supposed to be a joke? Israel's army is up there with Russia, NK, and Syria when it comes for their disdain for respecting basic human rights.
Coming from Coby Beck, I'm 100% sure it's inteneded as sarcasm.
yes, it was. But I forgot the internet truism that no matter how ridiculously you stretch a satirical comment it can still be taken seriously. And that is not a slight against Solar, but just the nature of internet comment threads.
I thought that framing it with sociopathic quotes from Isreali government officials and a link to a video of Isreali war crimes would stand in for an tag!
“How many trucks try to enter Gaza? … Unclear restrictions imposed by Israel have resulted in an average of 20 to 25 trucks turned away every day, about a fifth of the number that end up crossing into Gaza, he said… This suggests that only 170 trucks are available for Gaza even if Israel lets everything through.”
I know you’re struggling to find data on the subject, Kevin. But this anecdote is kind of meaningless. Humans eventually give up after so many failed attempts to do something. It’s not at all indicative of “trucks available for Gaza even if Israel lets everything through.”
It’s the equivalent of how today I witnessed a few cars trying to go up the ramp to the (former) Key Bridge in Baltimore. I guess they missed the news that the bridge collapsed - not everyone pays attention to news, right? And the rest are probably just morbid photographers. But this is not at all indicative of “the number of cars who normally wish to use the Key Bridge on a Sunday.” Once people learn they can’t cross it, they stop trying. The same has likely happened in Gaza.
Sometimes Kevin is so blinkered by his spreadsheets that he can't step back and ask himself about human nature and the realities of life. There is an increase in need but a decrease in supply. And in the midst of this is the reality that delivering things to Gaza carries a high risk of being killed or maimed. In that reality, it's absurd to say that the number of trucks waiting to come in reflects the number of trucks that would come in if it were safe to do so.
The death, destruction, and suffering is what’s driving all the support and sympathy for the Palestinians. If that problem gets solved with a robust aid delivery system, people will stop paying attention. So… it’s not going to get solved. It serves everyone’s interests to starve them. Sad, but I think true.
Starvation is one of the worst ways to die. It’s sickening that you make light of it.
Justin is a psychopath that wishes the entire world would die. There are few groups of people he hasn't wished destroyed and no method is too ruthless for him. Don't waste your words arguing with such a madman.
Kevin, do we need genocide and war crime glorifying comments like this?
The route into northern Gaza, by contrast, is so dangerous that very few aid agencies are willing to risk making deliveries. This is a far more difficult problem, and probably requires Israeli military escorts to solve it.
... then get shot at by the locals, then blamed when they stampede and kill each other trying to get to the aid. No way. If aid groups want to resupply northern Gaza they can, hope they have fun dealing with the locals.
I think the clear evidence for all who choose to look at it is that the convoys fear attacks from the Isreali military and desparate people This comes from lived experience. UNRWA deliveries are willing to go wherever the IDF will guarantee that the IDF will not target them, and the IDF both does not provide such assurances in many areas and has attacked anyway.
Whatever the number, it's not enough. Happy Easter, BTW. I don't think Jesus would be happy with modern day Israel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip_famine
He wasn't too happy with the Israel of His day, either.
Also wouldn't be happy with the religion founded in his name...
Do understand that there is no reliable evidence that Haniyeh is living "in luxury." The only thing we have is Israeli allegations, and you would make money betting the opposite of what Israel claims.
Bumper to bumper that would be 7.5m per truck. That would put each truck at roughly 24 feet eight inches.
How many lanes?
A few points
- Historically, some portion of international aid is repurposed into military tool (cement, pipes, wires etc)
- Historically, Gaza, via tunnels (mostly into Egypt) had a secondary robust source of imports
Separate item. The US is planning on building a military port in Gaza. Then what? How is the food etc distributed? Who defends the port? hmmm
Separate item, your item is bullshit. The US is not creating or planning a military port.
"US military ship heading to Gaza to build port"
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68526503
The port is being built by the US military because it has the equipment to do so. Its purpose is to deliver humanitarian aid — food, water, medicine — not military supplies.
I thought I'd let a comic strip artist weigh in on this matter:
https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2024/03/31
Dumb cartoon by Trudeau. No doubt the leaders of Hamas are corrupt, evil, etc.
But people in Gaza aren't poor because of them. If you were to divide their reported $11 billion wealth equally among all people in Gaza, that would amount to a one-time payment of a whopping $5,5000. That might help for a short period of time but there's no way to produce long-term wealth as long as Isreal maintains a stranglehold on the economy of Gaza.
BTW, I find it intersting that no one ever criticizes Netanyahu for being worth $80 million while 21% of Isrealis live in poverty.
Exactly.
Keep in mind that any Doonesbury story line featuring the Red Rascal/Sorkh Razil is going on only in Jeff Redfern’s mind …
"Or, as Israel alleges, is it because Hamas steals huge amounts of food and medical aid?"
Put that in the beheaded babies and mass rapes and UNWRA being a Hamas subsidiary "allegations" category. No aid group actually delivering the aid has certified this tall tale we all have to believe otherwise we're antisemitic. Oh, no doubt Hamas takes part of the aid (otherwise Israel would accuse them of deliberately starving the hostages, wouldn't it?).But famine in Gaza is not made by Hamas but by Israel, clearly, and multiple courts have found so.
The IDF is an illegitimate occupying force and should not be anywhere near aid convoys. They've shot up convoys more than once now.
Before the war, Gaza needed 500 truck loads plus what they produced themselves plus goods brought back from workers . .
and Kevin concludes that 158 trucks alone is enough to keep them from famine.
That would be true if you kill enough of them.
Satellite photos reportedly reveal a line of 30,000 trucks trying to get into Gaza. Yes, the aid convoys are visible from space.
Desperate Netanyahu, facing large protests, trying to expand the war in the Mideast:
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/01/crude-oil-prices-today.html
‘Tens of thousands’ of Israelis demonstrating:
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/01/1241955407/israelis-gaza-protest-netanyahu