UN spox.: ‘Israeli red tape blocking Gaza aid, Kerem Shalom not a McDonald’s drive-through’

“Israeli authorities are the sole decision makers on who, how, and how much aid enters the Gaza Strip, and the type of supplies that are allowed in,” Stéphane Dujarric told the ‘Post.’

While hundreds of aid trucks are positioned near the Kerem Shalom crossing, it’s not the amount of aid or the number of trucks that are the problem, but rather it’s the system, Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, told The Jerusalem Post Thursday.

“We ourselves have been saying that there are a lot of aid trucks waiting at Kerem Shalom,” Dujarric told the Post.

“But let’s be clear: Israeli authorities are the sole decision makers on who, how, and how much aid enters the Gaza Strip, and the type of supplies that are allowed in.”

According to Dujarric, the process of delivering humanitarian supplies into the war-torn enclave is fraught with layers of bureaucracy and security restrictions that make even basic deliveries a logistical nightmare.

“To collect supplies that have reached any of the Israeli crossings around Gaza, our drivers need multiple access approvals, a pause in the bombing, and the iron gates to slide open,” he said. “And then there are more hurdles in trying to get out of the crossings and find safe roads.”

In blunt terms, he added, “Kerem Shalom is not a McDonald’s drive-through where we just pull up and pick up what we’ve ordered. There are tremendous bureaucratic and security impediments imposed on us.”

Dujarric also rejected the notion that military escorts are a viable solution to the dangers facing humanitarian convoys.

“We saw what happened on Sunday in north Gaza with the WFP (World Food Programme) convoy. We saw the victims. We saw the death,” he said, referencing the deadly attack that left multiple aid workers dead or injured despite being accompanied by armed forces.

“The best protection for us is community buy-in,” Dujarric emphasized. “And to get that community buy-in, communities have to understand that trucks will come every single day — that food will come in every single day. That’s what we’re asking for.”

IDF responds to accusations Israel is causing famine in Gaza

The IDF said on Tuesday that there is no famine in Gaza as of yet, despite global claims; however, the number of trucks sitting on the Gaza border, not being brought to Gazans, is a record.

A top IDF official met with leading UN bureaucrats regarding the issue on Tuesday, demanding to know how they could accuse Israel of causing famine in Gaza, which, again, has not happened yet but might shortly should the UN continue to abandon its trucks, while simultaneously leaving the aid trucks to sit there without distributing the food.

According to the senior IDF official, the UN bureaucrats sat quietly for at least 20 seconds, struggling to formulate a response. Eventually, one of them said that they would make a more concerted effort to get the trucks moving again, the IDF stated.

The IDF provided several reasons as to why the UN trucks have been sitting by the border. Some had to do with the UN’s refusal to abide by the IDF’s regulations regarding which products could be imported and which could not, something that the IDF could alleviate by temporarily lowering its standards.

However, other reasons concerned the UN’s unwillingness to move through certain areas that the IDF claimed were secure, but which the UN did not accept at face value, refusing to advance.

Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.