Rejected aid includes crutches, croissants
Agencies, donor nations call Israel’s restrictions inconsistent, capricious
Israel is under growing pressure to ramp up aid to Gaza, where its military operations and siege have brought mass displacement, hunger and disease. In recent days, Israeli authorities say, they have increased the number of food and aid trucks entering the enclave, after President Joe Biden warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that U.S. support for Israel depends on the measures it takes to protect civilians and aid workers.
But in the six months since the start of the war, Israeli authorities have also denied or restricted access to items ranging from lifesaving medical supplies to toys to chocolate croissants.
“I think it’s unprecedented,” Shaina Low, a spokeswoman for the Norwegian Refugee Council in the Palestinian territories, said of the Israeli restrictions.
The blockages and delays, coupled with attacks on aid workers, are costing Palestinian lives, aid groups say — charges Israel denies.
The Washington Post reached 25 aid groups, U.N. agencies and donor countries about the kinds of aid they have tried to get into Gaza. Food, water and blankets do not require approvals, but agencies submit requests for items they think have a chance of getting rejected, such as communication equipment and sanitation or shelter items.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency responsible for coordinating aid inside Gaza, did not respond to requests for comment.
Items the United Nations and other aid agencies say Israeli authorities have blocked from entering Gaza at least once since Oct. 7 include:
● anesthetics.
● animal feed.
● cardiac catheters.
● chemical water quality testing kits.
● chocolate croissants.
● crutches.
● field hospital boxes.
● flak jackets and helmets for aid workers.
● medical scissors in children’s aid kits.
● microbiological water-testing kits.
● nail clippers in hygiene kits.
● obstetric clamps.
● prefabricated shelters.
● solar panels.
● stone fruits.
● surgical tools for doctors.
● toys in wooden boxes.
● ultrasound equipment.
● X-ray machines. Limited scanning machines and operational hours at border inspection sites slow the delivery of aid, according to Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory.
If one item is rejected during an inspection, he added, the whole truck is sent back. Earlier this year, insulin pens for children were denied entry, McGoldrick said, after a mixed-cargo truck was rejected apparently because of solar panels.