Sharp decline in number of convoys entering Gaza

The Palestinian foreign ministry said yesterday that the number of convoys entering the Gaza Strip has reduced sharply when compared to the period after the Israeli war in 2012.

Alaa Al-Battah, the head of the governmental committee for receiving solidarity convoys, said in a statement: “Only 14 Arabic, foreign and Palestinian solidarity delegations arrived in Gaza through the Rafah Crossing since the beginning of the Israeli war on July 7.”

According to Al-Battah, the delegations include one each from Jordan, Turkey, Malaysia, Tunisia, Sudan and Palestinians in Europe in addition to five from the UAE.

“Compared with the number of the delegations in the wake of the Israeli war on Gaza in 2012, the number has sharply reduced,” he said. “In 2012, 60 solidarity delegations included 1,600 members arrived in Gaza.”

Al-Battah accused the Egyptian authorities of banning tens of medical and relief delegations under “false pretexts”.

Gaza’s two windows to the world, where people can travel from and to Gaza, are the Eretz Crossing with Israel and the Rafah Crossing with Egypt. Both Israel and Egypt closed the crossings in mid-2007, when Israel imposed a siege on the Strip.