Announced at the beginning of the week, the drop -off of 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid promised by France began on Friday.
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“It’s a start, but it’s absolutely derisory. It is completely insufficient. It is a drop of water in the ocean”estimated Friday, August 1 on Franceinfo Aymeric Elluin, in charge of armed weapons and conflicts at Amnesty International France, while France has just led a first time dropping operation in Gaza. Friday morning, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, recalled on Franceinfo that “Four flights each carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian freight from Jordan” were to join Gaza.
“The humanitarian needs evaluated by the United Nations amount to 62 000 tonnes per month only for food aid “specifies Aymeric Elluin. He recalls that “On the spot, more than two million people are. So imagine 40 tonnes for two million people”. If he judges this sending of French aid “commendable”the plea manager at Amnesty International specifies that “This situation was predictable”. “This crisis is not a natural crisis, it is an artificial crisis which was mounted by the State of Israel which took control of the humanitarian aid, which has established an illegal blockade”. According to him, there is today “Four distribution points”while when the Israelis “Broken the ceasefire unilaterally in March, there were 400 distribution points”. “Today, as the United Nations say, the Gaza Strip must be flooded, because there is famine.”
Humanitarian aid drops, “As designed, are absolutely insufficient in terms of quantity, but they add insecurity to existing insecurity”souligne Aymeric Elluin. “When you drop humanitarian freight, you plan aerial corridors, you pay attention to the weather conditions. We have military teams that are running out of the exercise. But on the ground, you have a falling ton that falls.” Even if “Largages today are a little more precise”the fact remains that“With the population density on site, it is not impossible for pallets to fall on tents, on inhabited places, fall to the sea”.
He recalls that during previous drops, “Last year”pallets are “Fallen into the sea, derived because of the wind. Gazaouis who went to find them drowned. There are pallets that crushed people”. And by dropping pallets “Without aid on the ground to ensure the distribution of the goods which are provided, you add insecurity”denounces the manager of Amnesty International. “These are the strongest who will arrive first. We will attend chaos scenes. The most vulnerable will not have access immediately to food. I think of children, pregnant women, lactating women, the elderly. I think of all these sick people.”
“It’s been almost 22 months since Gaza is ravaged”s’indigne Aymeric Elluin. “We have been talking about malnutrition closer to 22 months, that we are talking about lack of food resources, lack of drinking water resources.” He also evokes “Medical assistance which must be part of this humanitarian aid”. According to him, the “System implemented by the Americans and the Israelis, are Guests-Apens”. “We see on the corridors leading to these distribution points, people who are shot”still denounces Aymeric Elluin, “Lady people who are starving and thirsty, who have made kilometers in areas that are not secure to recover food and who today take risks by going on these points to seek to eat. It is a total dehumanization of this population in Gaza. It is a population that is abandoned”.
“This start” from France “Perhaps salutary today, because we have the feeling that something happens. But in fact, it is absolutely derisory”adds Aymeric Elluin again. “And if we want it to change, we must absolutely continue the pressure on Israel to give up this militarized aid system which is only dead.”
