Tensions run high amid aid squabbles

Occupied Jerusalem: The humanitarian disaster in Gaza - with hundreds of dead civilians, overflowing shelters and acute food shortages - stems in part from a long-running feud between aid groups and Israel that has worsened since the war began, according to interviews with Israeli officials and international aid workers.

Relief agencies have complained that their stockpiles of food, fuel and medicine in Gaza were scarce even before the war started December 27 because of an 18-month economic blockade of the territory.

Delayed

Agency officials said their attempts to deliver supplies since then have been delayed repeatedly by Israeli officials who are reluctant to open border crossings, even for emergency shipments.

"Sadly, this was entirely predictable and in fact we did predict it," said John Ging, head of Gaza operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides food for 750,000 Palestinians there, roughly half the population.

Ging said the agency normally stores two months worth of food and six months of medicine in its Gaza warehouses.

Because of the Israeli blockade, however, the warehouses were nearly empty before the fighting started.

"We had simply no reserves," he said. "We were at our wits end to highlight just how precarious the situation was."

Military officials said they set up a special operations centre in Tel Aviv on Saturday to improve coordination with aid groups in response to concerns that emergency supplies were not getting through.

Blaming Hamas and other Palestinian groups for the blockade, they said it was necessary to force them to stop firing rockets into southern Israel.

Israel imposed the blockade when Hamas took control of Gaza in June 2007 after routing forces loyal to Fatah, a rival party favouring peace negotiations with Israel.

Hamas, considered a terrorist organisation by the US and Israel, rejects Israel's right to exist.

"We're doing everything we can to address humanitarian needs," said Major Peter Lerner, a Defence Ministry spokesman.

Last week, the Israeli military began ceasing combat operations for three hours daily, to allow relief workers to move around freely.

Many Israeli officials, however, have long nurtured suspicions that UN agencies and other aid groups, which are supposed to be politically neutral, favour the Palestinian cause.

They say the organisations are quick to accuse Israel of mistreating Gazans but slow to criticise Hamas for targeting Israeli civilians.

They also argue that Hamas draws little scrutiny for tactics that place non-combatant Palestinians in harm's way.

"It reinforces the Israeli sense that the UN and the international system (are) extremely biased," said Gerald Steinberg, a professor at Bar Ilan University and executive director of NGO Monitor, a blog tracking activities of relief agencies in Israel.

Tense atmosphere

Representatives of the UN and aid organisations say they don't favour either side in the conflict. Tensions peaked last week when UN officials accused the Israeli military of fatally shooting a driver in a humanitarian aid convoy and firing at two other UN employees in Gaza.