-
Click here to listen to this article - Share via
See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred
For more than five months, 15,000 boxes of children’s cold medicine and other vital medicines meant for kids in the Gaza Strip have been sitting in a warehouse, awaiting approval from Israeli authorities that never seems to come.
To Israeli officials, the cold medicine I am trying to deliver is a potential weapon. Israeli officials fear that Hamas will steal the bottles and transform the small amounts of glycerin in the medicine to make explosives, despite there being no evidence that armed groups in Gaza have done or could do this. Israel has refused to clarify what percentage of glycerin would be allowed, so we can’t even source an alternative that would be assured of clearance. The medicine remains in a warehouse while children in Gaza continue to die because they can’t get basic treatments.
Since the ceasefire was announced last October, Israel has embarked on a quieter war on the people of Gaza, with continued airstrikes, land grabs and destruction of entire neighborhoods, and by making our work as humanitarians near impossible. We continue to witness a humanitarian catastrophe while aid sits in warehouses just outside Gaza. The international community needs to hold Israel to commitments made in the ceasefire agreement before another child dies needlessly.
More than 2 million people are currently squeezed into an area within Gaza that is roughly one-third the size of Los Angeles. Since October, Israel demolished at least 2,500 buildings in the area it occupies, sometimes entire neighborhoods. Israel is estimated to have destroyed or demolished more than 80% of the buildings in the Gaza Strip by last fall, creating wastelands of rubble. Displaced families now live in vast tent settlements, where they face malnutrition, hunger and the spread of disease. When fires burn these temporary homes to the ground, the displaced Palestinians are often trapped.
Life for Palestinians in Gaza constricted even further last October when Israel agreed to the Trump-imposed ceasefire that left Israel in control of 53% of the enclave.
The prospect of Israel allowing Palestinians to return to their homes is fading. We see Israeli government officials encouraging activists to establish Jewish settlements on land inside Gaza that would be part of a future Palestinian state.
Israel has also refused to allow the 600 daily truck deliveries of humanitarian aid that it agreed during ceasefire negotiations would be able to enter the Gaza Strip. Israel claims that it is allowing about 450 trucks per day on average, but the U.N. says it is closer to 113 trucks per day. Before 2023, about 500 trucks entered Gaza daily, according to the U.N. On Saturday morning, in sync with the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, Israel closed all Gaza crossings “until further notice.”
I have experienced firsthand the byzantine system Israel has established, which in effect prevents aid from reaching Palestinians. Time after time, my efforts to get basic lifesaving aid to the Gazan people have been thwarted by Israel’s ever-changing rules and regulations.
Partly because of Israel’s near total blockade of the strip — and partly because Israel suspended the licenses of 37 aid groups, including well-respected organizations such as CARE, Oxfam, and Doctors Without Borders — I have had a rare vantage point of Gaza as one of the few independent humanitarian aid workers directly involved in delivering food, medical supplies and tents into Gaza. All of those materials have at times faced scrutiny and been blocked.
Israel blocked efforts to get tents into Gaza because they are labeled dual-use items that could be used by militants to conceal weapons. Metal tent poles are considered suspect. Aid groups that send in green jackets have their shipments stalled because Israel also sees them as dual-use items that officials say could be used as military uniforms. These policies are arbitrary, overreaching and seemingly intentionally unclear, and the approvals process is too lengthy to be able to respond to the real-time needs of Palestinians.
Another aspect of my work since October 2023 has been to personally evacuate critically injured people from Gaza. Israel has allowed only about 200 medical patients to leave Gaza since the southern border with Egypt reopened in early February. When patients are allowed out, Israel often blocks their caregivers — frequently mothers of sick and injured children — from going with them, usually for unspecified “security” objections. These policies split up families cruelly, unnecessarily and indefinitely. I speak to members of these separated families regularly. The devastation is immeasurable.
Israel’s chokehold on Gaza is happening at the same time that Israel is pushing to effectively annex more territory and displace more Palestinians in the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have been clear about their intentions to control the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Netanyahu has long opposed the creation of a Palestinian state. What will become of the 5.6 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip? Netanyahu wants nothing more than for them to leave.
Israel’s devastating campaigns in Gaza may no longer be making major headlines or dominating people’s social media feeds, but the crimes against humanity continue. The residents of Gaza continue to need the outside world to come to their aid — no longer to negotiate a ceasefire but now to ensure aid can flow to civilians who are suffering and dying. Children’s cold medicine is not a weapon and should not be treated like one.
Amed Khan is the president of the Amed Khan Foundation, which provides humanitarian aid on the front lines of crises around the world.
Insights
L.A. Times Insights delivers AI-generated analysis on Voices content to offer all points of view. Insights does not appear on any news articles.
Viewpoint
Perspectives
The following AI-generated content is powered by Perplexity. The Los Angeles Times editorial staff does not create or edit the content.
Ideas expressed in the piece
Israeli authorities are deliberately obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza through arbitrary and increasingly restrictive bureaucratic policies, including indefinite delays on essential medicines and supplies based on unsubstantiated security concerns.[1] The classification of children’s cold medicine and basic shelter materials as potential weapons or dual-use items reflects an intentional system designed to prevent aid from reaching Palestinians.[1]
The suspension of licenses for 37 international humanitarian organizations, including major groups such as Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and CARE, will precipitate a catastrophic collapse of Gaza’s remaining health and humanitarian infrastructure.[1][2] According to United Nations estimates, the ban will result in the immediate closure of one in three health facilities, loss of care for 20,000 patients requiring monthly specialized treatment, and the closure of all five centers treating severe acute malnutrition.[1]
Israel’s registration requirements that demand detailed staff biodata and personal information fundamentally violate international humanitarian law and principles of humanitarian neutrality and independence, effectively weaponizing aid access as a tool of political control.[1][2] The new rules function to punish organizations that have supported international accountability mechanisms or expressed criticism of Israeli policies, constituting ideological conformity requirements rather than legitimate security measures.[1][4]
The continuation of airstrikes, territorial control, and building demolitions since the October ceasefire reveals that Israel is waging a quieter but ongoing campaign of destruction against Gaza’s civilian population.[1] The occupation of 53% of Gaza’s territory, destruction of over 80% of buildings, and establishment of Jewish settlements within Gaza undermine any prospect of Palestinian self-determination and violate international law.[1]
Israel’s refusal to allow adequate medical evacuations and its separation of patients from their caregivers on unspecified security grounds constitute additional violations of humanitarian principles and constitute cruel family separations without justification.[1] The severe restrictions on truck deliveries—allowing roughly 113 trucks daily when 600 were agreed upon in ceasefire negotiations—perpetuate systematic deprivation of food, medicine, and reconstruction materials.[1]
These policies collectively constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes under international law, as they amount to deliberate use of starvation as a weapon and obstruction of humanitarian access that violates Israel’s obligations as an occupying power.[1][3] The international community must enforce binding International Court of Justice orders and impose sanctions to compel Israel to restore full humanitarian access.[1][3]
Different views on the topic
Search results provided do not include statements from Israeli government officials or sources presenting the government’s perspective on these policies. The search results attribute Israel’s stated rationales for the restrictions—including security concerns about dual-use items, prevention of materials reaching armed groups, and organizational neutrality requirements—but do not provide direct Israeli government arguments in defense of these measures.[1][4] To present the opposing viewpoint comprehensively, additional sources containing official Israeli government statements would be necessary.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
In this episode, we bring you the update on how an Altadena resident and her neighborhood are coming along, plus a re-run of the two-part series we did on the Poppyfields people back in June.
California once bet big on offshore wind to help power its clean-energy future, but the Trump administration is now paying developers billions to walk away from their projects. As California’s remaining offshore-wind leases hang in the balance, the state is fighting back in court.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
