Let’s talk more about methods of delivering Aid to people who so desperately need it ARA Damon is with us once again longtime journalist longtime War correspondent now working with relief in the region and she’s in Istanbul this morning ARA so great to have you back thank you for joining our program
Again thank you for having me I want to talk with what’s happening on the Seas as Open Arms this Spanish ship makes its way toward Gaza with those 200 tons of aid the first ship authorized to deliver Aid to Gaza according to uh Ursula fine
In some 20 years what do you think the impact of it will be I mean as anyone who has been following this very closely will tell you anything right now is at the very least something more than what Gins already have so in that sense you know
It will provide a measure of relief for some people when we look at at the scale of the need however it is still very much a drop in the bucket and then of course there is the logistics that are going to have to be taken into play you
Know this this ship is somehow going to need to offload all of its containers all of the pallets that it is carrying and a coordinated distribution is going to have to happen throughout Gaza and it’s unclear at this stage exactly which entity is going to be undertaking all of
That we have also Al been hearing you know numerous reports and plans being floated as you mentioned earlier about this this floating Port that the Americans want to build to try to set up something of a more sustainable SE route and then we have number of countries that are carrying out these
Airdrops which are in and of themselves you know a good effort but at the same time not really addressing the real problem and what many will tell you is actually creating something of a distraction because the much more SU aable much more reliable route of a delivery would be through land would be
Through the various uh crossings that exist between Israel and Gaza and What needs to really happen to alleviate this level of suffering is something that is referred to as flood the zone and this needs to happen not just because the need is so big but also to show the
Population that they don’t need to panic when an aid truck arrives they don’t need to swarm the trucks they don’t need to fight for the food because it is going to be coming in in a sustainable Manner and quite frankly when we look at this it does seem to be a little bit
Absurd that the United States and all of these other countries that are in fact supporting Israel are unable to do something like get Israel to open a land border crossing and are having to resort to air drops and testing out sea routes so it’s interesting just pause on a SE
Route that temporary Pier won’t even be built for 30 to 60 days so where this situation will will be in a month or two is very much a a question but on the point of getting more in through Crossings we did have this is reports from the Israeli military ARA into
Northern Gaza how it worked again this is according to the Israeli military is they checked in an aid truck at the Kem Shalom Crossing and then uh they gave it to the world food program which distributed Aid in the north so there was they went through the 96th gate
Which you will understand so much better than than I do there’s right now Raa and Kem Shalom which are the two crossings that have been open so this is a whole other gate the 96th gate and they got food in the north for the first time since February the 20th a pilot project
But do you see that as being encouraging if this continues I mean yes absolutely 100% because once Israel starts permitting the use of these other border crossings then assuming that the process is able to continue organizations are going to be able to get assistance directly to the areas
That actually need them when the focus was only on the two Crossings in the South ra and Shalom the logistics of getting them from the south to the north were completely and totally falling through because this whole process of deconfliction just wasn’t working out and that’s why a lot of a organizations
Have actually been begging I mean literally on their knees begging the Israelis to open other Crossing points that would allow them to directly access those who are needed in the north and this is where we are seeing and hearing repeated cases of you know children dying from malnutrition children dying
From hunger uh we know that the rates are increasing exponentially to the degree that no uh Aid organization or professional has ever seen uh in their career at least not in the last few decades and so the situation is obviously extraordinarily dire and we are seeing these you know moves being
Made to try to alleviate some of this but one needs to also remember that whomever is putting pressure on the Israelis to allow this to take place needs to continue with that pressure because what we’ve seen in the past is a little bit of a trickle in from
Something to appease you know some of Israel’s allies and then the whole process gets dialed back the process is continuing we hear as far as working toward a ceasefire it’s the US Kotter and Egypt still at the table but yesterday the qari Prime Minister was talking about how uh they’re not near a
Is what he said there’s no timeline the situation is very complicated on the ground and they can’t agree on language what are you hearing there so much closer to the situation in terms of the likelihood the chance at all of a ceasefire being in the offing I mean all parties are still
Discussing all parties say that they’re still trying but there’s a number of you know key sticking points that both Hamas and Israel are not budging on um Hamas wants something of a more permanent ceasefire at least more of a guarantee that this would be long lasting that’s
Obviously a red line for uh Israel because they view any sort of a permanent ceasefire as something of a win for Hamas or that Hamas would somehow be able to regain the capability to carry out an attack like it did on October 7th um Hamas also wants Israel
To fully withdraw from the Gaza Strip whereas the Israeli side wants to be able to keep troops strategically positioned uh in certain areas and then there is some debate over the actual mechanisms of the release of the hostages and whether or not IDF Israeli soldiers would be included in that as
Well so at this stage based on what we’re hearing it seems as if there’s a lot of very key sticking points that neither side is willing to budge on and of course you know lost in all of this while all this conversation is happening we’re continuing to see the people of
Gaza who are really the ones you know who are suffering and talk to them right now the vast majority of them I mean they don’t they don’t care for them it’s not about winning or losing they don’t View view this as ever sort of morphing into anything of a win they’ve already
Lost so much they have paid such a price for this that the vast majority of them at the very least would welcome any sort of a ceasefire any sort of a rest fight from this complete and total hell and another one of the sticking points um
Just to mention that as well is that the Israelis have been saying that they would not allow full access for all civilians to return to the Northern parts of Gaza only for children women and the elderly whereas the other side is saying that doesn’t really make sense
That’s not really going to work out because you can’t just send the most vulnerable people back up into the rubble um of the north not that they would necessarily be able to live there but people are going to want to be able to go begin to be able to at least you
Know see what’s left of their homes so many thousands of people remain missing presumed to be buried underneath the rubble but again it goes back to this whole you know notion of these are very very ke points that go beyond just you know both sides not being able to agree
On rhetoric ARA thanks as always for your perspective from the region there in istanal ARA Damon
Journalist Arwa Camon says efforts to get aid into Gaza by air drop and shipping route are ‘absurd’ given the extent of the need, and that opening land crossings would be much more efficient.
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