Israel allows UN to bring in more equipment amid Gaza lawlessness

The United Nations said on Monday that it will start bringing in more armored vehicles and personal protection equipment for its humanitarian aid operations in the Gaza Strip after receiving approval from Israeli authorities.

The approval was in response to a U.N. letter sent to Israel last month on safety and security in Gaza, said Scott Anderson, deputy humanitarian coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas enters its tenth month and law and order has broken down.

The U.N. has long complained of obstacles to getting aid into Gaza - Israel inspects and approves all trucks - and says it is also struggling to distribute aid amid "total lawlessness" within the enclave of 2.3 million people, where a global hunger monitor last month said there is a high risk of famine.

Anderson said the U.N. was due to start bringing more armored vehicles and protection equipment into Gaza on Tuesday.

"Some communications equipment has also been approved," he told reporters, like hand-held radios, but added that discussions are still continuing on a U.N. request for stable internet access.

The U.N. has said it wants communications that did not rely on cell phone towers because they were not reliable. However, Israeli authorities have security concerns about what Hamas could do if it accessed satellite internet service.

'CRIME FAMILIES'

Anderson said the U.N. needed to bring in aid in the right quantity and quality, but several factors "continue to stand in our way." He listed problems including restrictions on movement, aid worker safety, unpredictable working hours, communications challenges and a lack of fuel.

"And we've seen a complete breakdown of law and order and we've seen essentially what are crime families preventing the free movement of aid into Gaza to assist people," he said.

"The truck drivers that we use have been regularly threatened or assaulted ... they've become less and less willing, understandably, to move assistance from the border crossings to our warehouses and then onto people that are in need," Anderson said.

He said the U.N. was getting between 25 and 70 aid trucks a day into northern Gaza, but there was no commercial access.

Anderson said in southern Gaza "we've been barely able to hit 100 trucks on a good day over the last week because of law and order problems," but that commercial deliveries were doing a little better "but they pay essentially protection money to the families in the south and they also have armed guards."

Aid officials say about 600 trucks of humanitarian and commercial supplies are needed in Gaza daily to meet the needs of the population.

He said the U.N. was "in talks with everybody about trying to get some sort of police force established" and in the meantime was working with the families that are hindering aid deliveries to try and address the problem.

"It's a few families that are trying to take advantage of this opportunity and that's why I'm confident if we get police back at work that they can address the issue," Anderson said.