The UAE's first land convoy reaches Jabalya in northern Gaza

• Published date: 10 April 2024
• Author: SETH J. FRANTZMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

This is an important development as many countries are trying to move more aid to northern Gaza. In the wake of an airstrike on World Central Kitchen humanitarian aid workers on April 1, Israel opened the Erez crossing to Gaza. The expectation is that this will enable more aid to reach northern Gaza and that aid could come through Ashdod and also via other corridors, such as from Jordan

The UAE state media report, republished at Khaleej Times, said that the convoy to northern Gaza "is the first aid convoy by a country to arrive in the northern Gaza Strip, entering through the Rafah Border Crossing before arriving through the Karam Abu Salem border crossing to deliver aid to the Palestinians." Al-Ain media in the UAE appeared to have been able to get first-hand accounts from the aid convoy's arrival in Jabalya, a neighborhood that borders Gaza City and which was the scene of fighting in December 2023.

"In a narrow alley in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, a group of children lined up with smiles on their faces as they shouted the Eid takbirat," the report said. 'Eid Takbirat' refers to a common Arabic expression that is said during the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

"In the seventh month of the war in Gaza, this scene of children re-frames the image of the devastated Strip. The destroyed buildings appear as fortresses in the face of the infernal war machine, while the language loses its validity."

UAE's humanitarian aid efforts

According to the Khaleej report, the convoy had food and medical supplies, such as "food supplements, clothing, shelter materials, and other necessities. With this new batch, the total amount of aid that the UAE provided to northern Gaza by air and land during Ramadan has reached 2,102 tonnes. This includes aid shipped by land through the Karem Shalom crossing and by air through the operation."

The report notes that the aid is delivered under the "framework of the directives of President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to intensify humanitarian aid efforts to support the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip during Ramadan."

The report notes that...