Humanitarian aid should never be politicized though, quite often, the very survival of nations is used as political bargaining chips. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sadly, Gaza remains a prime example. Even before the current war, the Gaza Strip suffered under a 17-year hermetic blockade, which has rendered the impoverished area virtually ‘unlivable’. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That very term, \u2018unlivable\u2019 was used<\/a> by the then-UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Palestine, Michael Lynk, in 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As of mid-December, \u201cnearly 70% of Gaza\u2019s 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed\u201d, the Wall Street Journal reported<\/a>, citing experts who conducted a thorough analysis of satellite data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As tragic as the situation was in December, now it is far worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 67 percent of Gaza’s water, sanitation facilities and infrastructure have been destroyed<\/a> or damaged, according to a statement by the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, on June 19, leading to the spreading of infectious diseases, which has ravaged the beleaguered population for months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The spread of disease is also linked to the accumulation of garbage everywhere in Gaza. Earlier, the refugees agency reported<\/a> that \u201cas of June 9, over 330,000 tons of waste have accumulated in or near populated areas across Gaza, posing catastrophic environmental (and) health risks\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The situation was already disastrous. Indeed, three years before the war, the Global Institute for Water, Environment and Health (GIWEH) said<\/a>, in a joint statement with the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, that 97 percent of Gaza water was undrinkable and unfit for human consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, so far, any conversation on allowing aid to Gaza, or the rebuilding of Gaza after the war, has been placed largely within political contexts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By shutting down all border crossings, including the Egypt-Gaza Rafah Crossing – which, on June 17, was set ablaze<\/a> – Israel has politicized food, fuel and medicine as tools in its war in the Strip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not a mere inference, but the actual statement<\/a> made by Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, who on October 9, declared that he had ordered a \u201ccomplete siege\u201d and that \u201cthere will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, no water\u201d entering Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The timing of the statement, which has indeed been put into action from the first day of the war, suggests that Israel did not apply the strategy as a last resort. It was one of the most important pieces in the war stratagem, which remains in effect to this day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of pressuring Israel, Washington tried to obtain its own political leverage, also by politicizing aid. On March 3, the US Air Force started<\/a> airdropping aid into northern Gaza. A far more conducive and less humiliating option for Palestinians, however, would have been direct US pressure on Israel to allow access to aid trucks arriving through Rafah, Karem Abu Salem Crossing or any other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Scenes and images<\/a> of thousands of starving Palestinians chasing after boxes of aid parachuted in Gaza will remain etched in the collective memory of humanity as an example of our failed morality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n News reports spoke<\/a> of whole families who were killed under the weight of the dropped \u2018aid\u2019, much of which had fallen in the Mediterranean, never to be retrieved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even the Gaza pier, constructed<\/a> by the US military on the Gaza shore last month, did little to alleviate the situation. It merely transported<\/a> 137 aid trucks, according to the US\u2019 own estimation, enough to cover Gaza\u2019s need for food for a few hours only. <\/p>\n\n\n\n