Crossing borders: goods transported from Israel to Gaza
12 February 2009
Large trucks line the approach road to the crossing at Kerem Shalom. The
drivers sit waiting under the hot sun.
This is the main crossing point for getting goods into Gaza.
Each day, the contents of around 120 trucks – sent by both commercial companies and humanitarian organisations including UN agencies such as UNRWA – are transported into Gaza via the crossing at Kerem Shalom (also known as Kerem Abu Salam).
They may only transport items which are approved by the Government of Israel.
Yesterday, a total of 24 trucks carrying supplies such as food parcels, were
dispatched by the Logistics Cluster, in Jerusalem. The Logistics Cluster, funded
by the Department for International Development, is a group of humanitarian
agencies, led by the World Food Programme, that work to ensure aid can get into
Gaza as quickly and efficiently as possible.
At Kerem Shalom, nobody quite knows when each individual truck will be given the signal to approach the crossing itself.
Those who arrive before 8am, when the crossing opens, are usually processed quickly, within 20 minutes. Those who arrive later in the morning risk spending hours waiting for their turn. Some drivers spend the night at the crossing in order to ensure they are first in the queue.
Kerem Shalom, in the southernmost corner of Israel, sits on the borders with
Egypt and Gaza.
The crossing is run by a civilian section of the Government of Israel’s Ministry of Defence. The Government of Israel says it is concerned about attempts to smuggle restricted items in consignments of permitted items such as blankets or sacks of flour.
It has designed a system that ensures all goods – whether from commercial companies or humanitarian organisations – are security-checked as they pass through Kerem Shalom from Israel and into Gaza.
Trucks coming from Israel do not drive straight across the border and into Gaza. Instead, the goods are unloaded at the crossing point between 8am and 2pm. Items are then security-checked by staff.
Refridgerated and frozen items such as milk and meat are unloaded last, in
order to ensure they are the first items to be picked up by the Palestinian
trucks and so do not spend long periods out in the open warming up under the hot
sun.
Once the goods have been cleared by security, Palestinian-owned trucks are permitted to approach the crossing and pick up the off-loaded supplies between 2pm and 4.30pm. The time limit has been imposed for security reasons so Palestinian trucks are not loaded after nightfall.
Ami Shaked, the manager of the crossing point, said: “We need to be careful of items being smuggled. It does happen. For example, today, we have found things not on the approved list wrapped up in blankets.”
There are plans to expand the capacity at Kerem Shalom.
Mr Shaked said: “We are planning improvements to make it bigger and more efficient.”
He added he believed the team at the crossing point could scale up and cope with up to 500 trucks per day if necessary.
But he said he was concerned that the crossing point could be targeted by rocket fire from within Gaza and explained that an attack last April did significant damage to the infrastructure of the crossing, though nobody was injured.
Links
- How the UK is meeting humanitarian needs in Gaza - daily update
- How you can help
