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Israel working to improve Gaza crossing
Israel and the Palestinian Authority are working together with the United Nations to increase the flow of goods into Gaza by making improvements at the Kerem Shalom Crossing. Until the Hamas take over of Gaza last month, Israel along with Fatah security forces and personnel had manned the crossings at Karni and at Erez. But since June 12, Karni, which is the main commercial passage way into Gaza, has been closed for everything except for the transfer of wheat for flour. Erez has been open for limited pedestrian traffic and the transfer of medical supplies. Unable to fully reopen both crossings without Fatah or an alternative Palestinian body, Israel has relied instead on two secondary passages at Sufa and Kerem Shalom to allow humanitarian aid such as basic foods supplies and animal feed into Gaza. Neither Sufa or Kerem Shalom, however, can duplicate the capacity of Karni. On Thursday night, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that, "the UN, PA and Israel are working together to increase the capacity of the [Kerem Shalom] Crossing by opening two conveyer belts and increasing the hard stand area for truck-transfer operations." Kevin Kennedy, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Territories, said that even without the expansion, flow of humanitarian aid has improved in the last week. "We are at 70 percent of the estimated needs in Gaza, which is a significant increase from last week, so I think we are moving ahead," said Kennedy. The UN provides some 1.1 million of the 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza with basic food supplies such as flour, sugar, beans, rice and powdered milk. At the end, Kennedy said, there was no duplicate for the Karni Crossing, which he too said, must be reopened. "But we are still focused on the immediate needs," he said. Posted by: Fred 2007-07-07 |
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