12 January 2009
United States Providing Food, Medical Supplies, Blankets to Gaza
U.S. Agency for International Development works with U.N. agency in Gaza
Washington — Working through contractors and the United Nations, the United States is providing food, medical supplies and other basic necessities for Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, U.S. officials say.
“The supply lines into Gaza have been slow. We are relying exclusively on UNRWA [U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East] to be our shipping vehicle from east Jerusalem, from where we’re purchasing things, to the crossings into Gaza and into the distribution points in Gaza,” said Howard Sumka, mission director for the West Bank and Gaza for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Items purchased by the United States for humanitarian assistance to Palestinians are being sent to a warehouse managed by UNRWA in east Jerusalem, Sumka said at a press briefing January 9. Getting the supplies from east Jerusalem to Gaza has proven to be difficult, he said.
“The number of trucks that have been able to get across the Kerem Shalom crossing has been not as high as we would have liked,” Sumka said. “UNRWA has been queuing up its commodities in terms of the priorities that they’ve identified for what needs to get to the people first.”
As soon as hostilities began between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, USAID began working through contractors to acquire humanitarian goods and medical supplies, Sumka said. USAID has signed grant agreements with six nongovernmental organizations with which it has worked previously in the West Bank and Gaza. All of these groups have a presence in Gaza and have the capacity to distribute commodities there, he said.
USAID has:
• awarded $1.75 million in six grant agreements.
• purchased about $80,000 worth of medical equipment and supplies.
• purchased $250,000 worth of plastic sheeting.
• procured 40,000 blankets.
• delivered 1.6 metric tons of food aid worth about $1.5 million through the World Food Programme.
“The reason … we are relying on UNRWA is because they have the capacity and the experienced people and the supply and the assets on the ground to actually deliver the commodities into Gaza,” Sumka said.
The USAID food aid supports approximately 20,000 nonrefugee Palestinian families in Gaza in a bimonthly package of five basic commodities — wheat flour, vegetables, chickpeas, cooking oil, salt and sugar. Sumka said USAID is beginning to buy packaged, nonperishable food items because of the lack of electricity in many parts of Gaza. Medical supplies include syringes, tubes, gloves, X-ray film, tape and silk for sutures. Bedding aid includes mattresses, blankets and linens.
“The vast majority of the food we’ve put in has been this five-basic-commodities package that is kind of a standard, high-calorie package for families,” Sumka said.
In addition to the immediate assistance, the United States announced on December 30 that it was making an $85 million contribution to the 2009 appeal from UNRWA, of which $25 million will go directly to the West Bank and Gaza. Some $5 million will go directly to the flash appeal that UNRWA issued in response to the current humanitarian crisis, said Elizabeth Hopkins, director for Asia and the Near East in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.
Sumka said the needs are quite extensive, and USAID is prepared to provide additional commodities as needed and if the crisis expands.
