The Israeli military has lifted a ban on the sale of food to Gaza from Israel and the occupied West Bank as its battlefield offensive chokes international aid, according to Palestinian officials, businessmen and international aid workers.
Army authorities gave Gazan traders the green light to resume their purchases from Israeli and Palestinian suppliers of food such as fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy goods this month, days after Israeli forces launched an assault on the enclave's southernmost city of Rafah, the people said.
The offensive against Rafah, a key gateway into Gaza from Egypt, has effectively halted the flow of U.N. aid to the devastated Palestinian territory.
Israel is coming under mounting global pressure to ease the crisis as humanitarian agencies warn of looming famine.
"Israel phoned Gazan distributors who had been purchasing goods from the West Bank and Israel before the war," said Ayed Abu Ramadan, chair of the Gaza Chamber of Commerce.
"It told them it was ready to coordinate the pick-up of goods."
Reuters, which interviewed more than a dozen people familiar with the development, is the first news outlet to report on the details and impact of this resumption of commercial food deliveries bound for sale in Gazan markets and stores.
The shift marks the first time any goods produced inside Israel or the West Bank, an Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, have been allowed into Gaza since war erupted in October last year, according to the Palestinian officials, traders and residents.
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Deliberate starvation of civilian population is a clear war crime. Israel announced this policy on Day 1 and has carried it out. The US looks so pathetic in its "pier response" to countervail this Israeli policy of its supposed "ally." It is no different than if the US shot down its own supplied bombs that Israel "indiscriminately" [the assessment of the US military] targets at residential neighborhoods.
Is this really a healthy relationship from the perspective of the US? That this is not perceived as a rhetorical question speaks for itself.
This is so beyond obvious to anyone who has no emotional or "tribal" entanglement. Or should be.
Stealing donated free food and shelter material and selling it at inflated prices results in the same problem as bombing, no available resources for citizens who may not have had any income for a few months.
@MadOatmealRepublican2yrs2Y
What is Hamas doing for the people of Gaza? What is Hamas doing to feed the people of Gaza? What is Hamas doing to shelter the people of Gaza? The U.S. just completed building a floating pier to get aid into Gaza from the sea - Hamas launched rockets and forced the closing of a land route for aid so how long until Hamas starts launching rockets at that pier?
Why am I not hearing about the people of Gaza renouncing and denouncing Hamas?
It's not clear to my why Hamas isn't accused of weaponizing starvation. Palestinian suffering serves the political interests of one group only, and that's Hamas and its leadership.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
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