Why burn Gaza food aid?
Poor people in the region of Sinai have been looting the food, medicine and other aid items intended for the poor of Gaza. They have looted the sports stadium in Al-Reesh, where tons of humanitarian aid for Gaza has been piling up since last January.
Egyptian police and officials have turned a blind eye to the looting on the grounds that the food, left lying in the sun since January, had been piled up as out of date and spoilt. The authorities are reportedly planning to burn the rice, flour, tinned food, oil, and cheese, and also the blankets, which do not have use-by dates.
We do not blame the Egyptian poor for looting the food aid bound for Gaza but the Egyptian Government for the failure to assist with delivering it to Gaza, where four out of five people are dependent upon food aid according to UN officials.
The Egyptian police have refused to comment on the looting, but confirmed that the tons piling up there were gathered to be burned because all of it was deemed inedible, all with expired use-by dates and not safe for human consumption.
Some reports say the North Sinai Governor Mohamed Shousha, and the Red Crescent highest official, have failed to respond to all the attempts to call them. The food aid to Gaza was a collaborative effort of millions of people and charity donors all around the world.
This week it was also reported that in May authorities in Egypt had already burned more than 250 tons of food aid that came originally last January as a donation from the Libyan people, and had also been left for months exposed to the heat of the sun.
Why did the Egyptian authorities not facilitate the delivery of the food to the starving poor in Gaza by sea, through the crossings or even through the tunnels that were gassed by the Egyptian authorities to deter hungry Gazans seeking food?
You are not going to read answers to these questions in the newspapers of Cairo, but the readers of this newspaper should be demanding answers from the Government of Egypt.