The Dutch cabinet has promised 10 million euros in additional emergency aid to the Gaza Strip, now that a million people have been displaced there by Israeli bombing and an expected ground offensive. This was announced by outgoing Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Liesje Schreinemacher (VVD) on Tuesday morning.
On Thursday, Schreinemacher had announced that additional money was not possible, despite a call from the United Nations to increase humanitarian aid. A large part of her budget for this year had already been spent on the costs of asylum reception, she said: these are largely paid from development funds.
In the meantime, a majority had emerged in the House of Representatives that did want to respond to the UN’s call to make extra aid available. The UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said last week that at least 100 million euros are needed for food, health care and shelter in Gaza.
And more will undoubtedly be needed, says Sjoerd Sjoerdsma (D66), the submitter of the parliamentary motion for extra support. “The UN is currently mainly concerned with the political side, with getting goods on site, but experience shows that that amount quickly increases.”
Sjoerdsma worked as a diplomat for a year at the Dutch representation in the Palestinian Territories, from East Jerusalem. The current situation is exceptional, he says. “In itself there is a very good crisis infrastructure: many Palestinians were already dependent on the UN. But this is a challenge like we have not seen in a long time, perhaps most recently in Syria.”
Airlift
Tuesday the UN announces that water and sanitation facilities have failed, a humanitarian disaster is looming.
Yet last week, part of the House of Representatives wanted to put a brake on aid money for the Palestinians, because the money or resources could end up in the hands of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. At the beginning of last week, the European Union also seemed to briefly intend to stop existing aid.
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By the end of the week, EU emergency aid to Gaza had actually tripled to 75 million euros, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced. The EU also wants to organize an air bridge via Egypt from this week to get UN goods to the Palestinians.
Without help, “people will languish and die,” United Nations emergency response coordinator Martin Griffiths said Monday. Financial Times. “We have to bring that help in, there is no Plan B.”
Electricity, food, water and fuel to Gaza have been cut off by Israel since violence flared up. Israel has been negotiating with the UN for days about aid access to the area, but the border with Egypt is still closed. A large number of aid convoys on the Egyptian side are waiting for passage. An aid corridor is difficult to get started, according to the UN, because it is unclear who can guarantee safety.
On Monday, UNRWA shared on That message was later deleted.
“You operate in a very difficult environment,” says Sjoerdsma. “Hamas controls access to Gaza, that is also my own experience. That is why you try to provide local assistance as much as possible. In the end, there are never any guarantees that everything will go completely smoothly. But with the UN you have an organization that has been there for decades, that has the experience.”
Shield
“We have known for a long time that Hamas is abusing the presence of UNRWA in Gaza,” says CDA MP Derk Boswijk. “The UN is often used as a kind of shield, missiles have been fired from or near their locations. That makes the job difficult.”
At the same time, the situation is so dire for many Palestinians that help is now desperately needed, says Boswijk. The CDA therefore supports the motion. “You can never completely rule out that certain resources end up with certain groups,” says Boswijk.
“If that happens deliberately, it’s a different story. And yes, that line is very gray, I realize that.”
The biggest challenge, says Sjoerdsma, is actually of a different nature. “The main obstacle is getting those things into the area. The route via Israel is actually not an option now. The border crossing with Egypt has been bombed several times. And beyond that lies the Sinai, a desert area, also not an easy supply route.”