Two US senators who visited aid warehouses and crossings in Israel this week have accused Israeli authorities of “deliberately” obstructing aid into the Gaza Strip and presenting a narrative that was contrary to the reality on the ground.
Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats, said they listened to what amounted to “pure propaganda” from the Israeli side about “the most organised operation ever” to get aid into Gaza. They said, however, that the situation on the ground was completely different and that very little aid was getting through, despite there being enough food in a single World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse to feed Gaza’s entire population for three weeks.
The senators’ regional visit included Israel, the occupied West Bank, Jordan, and Egypt, with the stated goal of “pressing for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where it is desperately needed amid widespread famine, and to continue our calls for an immediate ceasefire and the immediate return of all hostages.” On Saturday, they arrived in Egypt’s North Sinai governorate to visit the Rafah crossing and inspect aid warehouses.
On Wednesday, Van Hollen said they had visited the WFP site in Israel. “It contains enough food to feed every person in Gaza for three weeks,” he said, adding: “The Netanyahu government must stop using starvation as a weapon.”
Merkley described seeing how aid was being impeded at the Ashdod port. “At the Port of Ashdod, Chris Van Hollen and I saw how Israel’s burdensome inspection process is holding up essential food aid. Gaza is starving, and the World Food Program is working tirelessly to get people the food they need,” he said.
A WFP official told them they had 2,200 containers of food, which translates to 40,000 metric tons, ready to enter Gaza. Van Hollen stated that only 20 containers per day were being permitted to leave the warehouses due to a “burdensome and deliberate process to obstruct aid.”
Merkley said they also visited the Kerem Shalom crossing. “There, we heard rosy talk about aid getting into Gaza, but the reality was different. Little aid is passing through,” he said.
“The briefing we received was designed to tell us everything we wanted to hear, about the best-organised operation to get aid into Gaza, without any mention of obstruction or frustration,” Merkley added. “Unfortunately, this briefing did not reflect reality at all, and that’s what makes it difficult to listen to what amounts to pure propaganda.”
Van Hollen and Merkley also met with the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
“The message that Senator Jeff Merkley and I received from the hostage families we met in Tel Aviv was as simple as it was powerful: bring them home and end the war now,” Van Hollen said.
He added that the families told him that Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu had prioritised his political survival over the lives of the hostages.”