An Israeli-backed system meant to deliver aid and food into Gaza launched last week to scenes of chaos and violence. WSJ's Anat Peled breaks down the new system, and explains why getting aid to the region is difficult and dangerous. Jessica Mendoza hosts. Further Listening: - A Fragile Cease-Fire Deal in Gaza - The UN Agency Accused of Links to Hamas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is now in month 20, with no end in sight.
The war is grinding on, and negotiations for a ceasefire for hostage exchange are officially ongoing, but we haven't seen any breakthrough yet.
That's our colleague Anat Pellid. She's been covering the conflict in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis that's unfolding there. A crisis that's been getting worse. Last week, a controversial new plan was put in place to help distribute aid. It's backed by Israel and the U.S., and it promises to deliver food to Palestinians in Gaza. But implementation has been mired in chaos and disorder.
— So you have Gazans who are very hungry and desperate, and all of them trying to make their way to these centers and get food, get boxes of food. — And what we've seen, you know, on the first day, the very first day of the launch, we saw large crowds break into one of the, you know, distribution sites. And there was looting, and there was chaos, and the American staff had to retreat.
And we know that the Israeli military fired warning shots.
— Violence has broken out twice this week, as Palestinians made their way to a distribution center. More than 40 Gazans have been killed trying to get aid, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, rescue services, and witnesses. The Israeli military says some people approached its troops on their way to the distribution site.
The military fired warning shots, as well as shots near individuals who failed to retreat. The military added it was reviewing reports of casualties. Delivering aid to people in Gaza has become one of the biggest challenges in the war, a conflict where the separation between combatants and civilians is blurred and no solution has worked. In the meantime, people are facing starvation.
How bad is it? How bad is the humanitarian situation in Gaza right now?
The situation is pretty bad. A lot of people are living in tents. There's very little food. So we're seeing kind of a state of chaos as Hamas kind of also loses some sort of grip on the strip or, you know, it's weakened. There's just kind of a breakdown.
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