Israel has not been involved in the inspection of US food packages the American military airdropped over Gaza during joint operations with the Jordanian Royal Airfare, according to the Pentagon.
“The goods are prepackaged foods that are inspected at the time they are processed and prior to delivery,” the Pentagon initially told The Jerusalem Post when speaking about Friday’s airdrop.
The Pentagon told the Post that Israel was “not involved” in security inspections for the goods on that drop. On Tuesday, after the second airdrop, the Pentagon told reporters that Israel did not screen those goods either.
Jordan had separately conducted an airdrop last week. The US plans to do more airdrops. Other countries, including Belgium, want to conduct similar operations as a go-around to distribution problems on the ground to the active combat between Israel and Hamas, which according to the United Nations, has created a food crisis in the enclave that is home to 2.3 million people.
Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) raised concerns about the security aspects of such operations when he spoke to his faction on Monday in the Knesset.
In a speech attacking the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Lapid said, it was “not qualified” to run the war or the necessary diplomacy around it.
Lapid pointed to the issue of the airdrops as an example, explaining that “the Americans’ and the Jordanians’ airdrop into Gaza did not go through a security inspection. Americans have lost faith in this government. They have lost faith in Netanyahu’s ability to run a campaign.”
Israel inspects goods entering Gaza
The Office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which is tasked with oversight with regard to goods entering Gaza from air, sea, and land, said, however, that Israel had been involved in the inspections.“The aid packages that are airdropped into the Gaza Strip undergo security checks, in which Israeli officials are also involved.”
COGAT did not elaborate further and neither did the US or Lapid’s office when pressed for more details about how security was handled or will be handled for goods that were airdropped or will be airdropped in the future.
Israel has tightly controlled inspections of goods entering Gaza to ensure that no weapons or materials that could be used to produce weapons are smuggled into the enclave to help Hamas in its war against Israel.
This includes an inspection mechanism for goods entering Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah border. Before the war, there were three land crossings into Gaza – two controlled by Israel at Kerem Shalom and Erez and a third at Rafah under Egyptian control. Rafah and Erez were considered pedestrian crossings while Kerem Shalom was the main avenue through which goods were transferred into the enclave.
Israel, for security reasons, has long controlled Gaza airspace and sea space. There is no port in Gaza for large-scale cargo ships and Gaza had an airport only briefly from 1998-2001.
The Jordanian and US airdrops mark the first time in more than two decades that non-Israeli aircraft have flown over Gaza airspace.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.•