After a month of conflict in the Middle East and continuous bombardment of Gaza “which has killed 10,000 people”, in retaliation for “the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, which killed more than 1,000 people and took more than 200 hostages, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic”, the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič noted with alarm on Tuesday 7 November, the day on which the 7th and 8th flights in the EU’s humanitarian air bridge to Egypt for the people of Gaza took off from Belgium.
Mr Lenarčič was present in Ostend, from where a cargo plane chartered by Médecins du Monde, UNFPA and the French Crisis and Support Centre took off, carrying 45 tonnes of urgent supplies (mainly medicines, medical equipment and food) to the Egyptian airport near Gaza in northern Sinai.
A few hours later, another flight took off from Antwerp (Belgium) carrying 400 tonnes of essential supplies.
The Commissioner indicated that these first eight flights would be followed by others “in the coming weeks, for as long as necessary”. He also added, “There is a humanitarian emergency. Gaza needs everything: water, food, medicine and fuel”.
The first challenge is the volume of humanitarian aid that can enter Gaza, which is “far too low”, he insisted: in one month, “around 500 lorries have been able to enter, compared with 500 a day before the latest escalation of violence. That gives you an idea of the situation”.
The second is to guarantee safe and unrestricted humanitarian access to the entire population of Gaza, in accordance with international humanitarian law, “and not just to the southern part [of the enclave – Editor’s note], but wherever the population needs humanitarian aid”, emphasised Mr Lenarčič.
The third challenge is to lift all restrictions on fuel “which Gazans desperately need for electricity generators, hospitals, water pumps in desalination plants, bakeries and to enable humanitarian workers to move around”.
Asked about access by sea, as mentioned by Ursula von der Leyen, Mr Lenarčič confirmed that he was “interested in this idea” of a sea corridor. “The problem is that there is currently no functioning port on the Gaza coast. It needs to be restored to working order”.
That same morning, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for the Kerem Shalom border crossing into Israel to be opened. “We are in favour of all possible access routes”, said the Commissioner.
According to the Commission’s chief spokesman, Eric Mamer, “the issue could be raised” at the “international humanitarian conference for the civilian population of Gaza”, organised by Emmanuel Macron in Paris on the morning of Thursday 9 November and attended by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and Ms von der Leyen. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)