c. 2003 Religion News Service

EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip _ Representatives of more than 30 international aid organizations demonstrated Monday (May 26) at the Israeli military checkpoint into the Gaza Strip, protesting tough new army regulations governing the movement of foreign aid workers.

The groups say the policies are impeding efforts to bring vital humanitarian support to needy Palestinians.

For months, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been unable to move safely beyond the limits of their immediate neighborhoods, towns or villages, because of an unending cycle of Israeli military blockades, closures and curfews. The unhindered movement of foreign aid workers has become critical to the continued functioning and development of civil institutions such as Palestinian schools and hospitals, and the provision of basic food supplies, water and medical services.

“If the current situation is not resolved soon, the 41 international nongovernment organizations with humanitarian aid and development programs in the Gaza Strip may be forced to cease their activities, adding to the deteriorating humanitarian situation there,” the groups said in statement issued Monday and signed by more than 30 NGOs.

“Many organizations have been forced to spend up to 50 percent of their working hours dealing with the growing restrictions,” the statement said. “These have included time spent at checkpoints trying to gain access to project sites … filing access requests and other liaison with the Israeli authorities and the international community on their continued inability to undertake their work in any kind of consistent or effective manner.”

The situation is even more grave in view of growing trends of malnutrition among Palestinian children, said Dan Simmons, director of the Israel/Palestine branch of World Vision, the evangelical Christian aid organization.

An estimated 13 percent of Gaza’s children under the age of 5 are suffering from acute malnutrition while over half of Palestinian children under the age of 5 in both the West Bank and Gaza have inadequate caloric and vitamin intakes, according to a recent study undertaken by CARE International and Johns Hopkins University, with a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Health care is also seriously impacted, said Janet Symes, a spokeswoman with the Great Britain branch of Save the Children Foundation.

“Children and mothers are having difficulties in reaching health clinics and getting access to services they require. People involved in medical emergencies are not able to move in and out quickly and efficiently,” added Symes.

The access problem is particularly acute in Gaza where population densities are much higher and poverty is more widespread than the West Bank.

As a result of the new restrictions, some international aid workers who are already inside Gaza have become virtually trapped there, unable to gain permission to temporarily leave for either work-related or personal reasons, and then return to their aid functions.

The new restrictions were first implemented in late April, when aid workers began to be subjected to longer than usual security checks at the Erez checkpoint.

On April 30, two British nationals of Pakistani Muslim descent carried out a suicide bombing attack on Israelis at Mike’s Place, a popular Tel Aviv seaside bar and restaurant. Immediately after that international aid workers trying to get into Gaza began to experience delays of up to seven hours and were subject to intense questioning about their activities. In subsequent days and weeks, many aid workers were denied entry altogether.

Last week, the military issued a list of about 200 international aid workers who would henceforth be “authorized” to enter and exit Gaza. But the list represents only a fraction of the international staff actually working in the Palestinian territories, Simmons said.

For example, only three of World Vision’s seven-member international staff were on the list of authorized entries.

An Israeli military spokesman interviewed by RNS said the Mike’s Place suicide bombing, in which three Israelis were killed, triggered a wholesale review of procedures regarding foreign nationals moving in and out of Gaza, including those working in aid organizations.

“What was so unprecedented about Mike’s Place was that this was the first time in the history of the suicide bombers that the bombers were not Palestinians,” the official said. “We had Britons who had entered Israel from Gaza blowing themselves up in the middle of Tel Aviv. This sparked a review of procedures for all internationals going in and out of Gaza. It makes things more complicated for everyone.”

The spokesman added, however, that Israel remained committed to providing access to aid workers. “We will always provide humanitarian aid. We will not deny access to humanitarian aid workers. Foreign aid workers who are not on the authorized permanent list of those permitted to enter can always file a request, and depending on the circumstances, they may be allowed to go in.”

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Simmons said aid organizations such as World Vision are “glad to comply with the process of documentation,” except when those procedures became so excessive that they hinder movement altogether.

“I know of no instance of violence that was ever perpetrated by the staff member of an international NGO,” he said. “We are committed to nonviolence and would be most hurt if our staff had engaged in any violent acts. We would be the last people to tolerate violence.”

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