UNICEF says opened probe into Gaza aid shipment smuggling
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An aid truck moves on a road after entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on Feb 1.
PHOTO: REUTERS
JERUSALEM - The UN’s children agency said on March 18 it was probing alleged smuggling via its Gaza-bound aid shipments after Israel said it had found contraband tobacco and nicotine products in UNICEF shipments.
“UNICEF was informed by Israeli authorities that tobacco and nicotine bottles were found inside a consignment of UNICEF hygiene kits being transported into Gaza by a commercial carrier... As soon as UNICEF was informed, a full internal investigation was launched into the case,” UNICEF said in a statement to AFP.
“Despite the preventive measures we have in place, attempts to smuggle such items into shipments from humanitarian agencies do occasionally occur,” the agency said in its statement, adding that the agency had a “zero-tolerance policy” regarding smuggling.
Israel said on March 17 it would halt UNICEF’s shipments to Gaza from Egypt after it said it had found smuggled goods in one of the fund’s shipments during an inspection at Gaza’s Kerem Shalom entry point.
COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body in charge of civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said that “bottles containing nicotine substances were found concealed inside cartons of hygiene kits”, during an inspection.
COGAT added that the suspension would remain in place “until the agency provides the findings of a full investigation, as well as an official response on the matter”.
The UN’s OCHA humanitarian agency said on March 17 that the Kerem Shalom crossing was currently the only entry point for aid and commercial goods going to the Gaza Strip.
“The UN and our partners were able to collect food, hygiene kits, early childhood development kits, medicine and animal fodder from Kerem Shalom, but more crossings must be opened to scale up the response”, it said in a statement on March 17.
Since the terms of a US-brokered ceasefire deal came into effect on Oct 10, Israel remains in control of nearly half of the Gaza Strip, including all its border areas.
It imposed a strict blockade after the start of the war with Hamas in October 2023, prompting frequent calls for more aid trucks to be allowed into the tiny Palestinian territory from UN agencies and international NGOs. AFP
