Israel Uses Gaza's Crossings As A Tool Of Collective Punishment

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Palestinian human rights activists, researchers, and figures have confirmed that the Israeli occupation has exploited the Gaza Strip's crossings during the genocidal war it has been waging for over 700 days as a tool of collective punishment and direct control, resulting in serious violations of international humanitarian law.
In remarks to Qatar News Agency (QNA), they emphasised that the Israeli occupation was not satisfied with the siege imposed on the Strip during the genocidal war, but rather sought to dismantle official Palestinian frameworks, such as the Crossing Authority, which oversees and manages the Gaza Strip's crossings, to create a state of chaos and conflict and undermine the work system at the Strip's commercial crossings. This is done to tighten its grip on them and exploit this as part of its state of punishment, oppression, and starvation against civilians in Gaza.
In this context, Director of the Coalition for Integrity and Accountability (AMAN) office in the Gaza Strip, Wael Ba'alousha, said that since the beginning of the aggression, the Israeli occupation has exploited the Strip's crossings as a tool for collective punishment and direct control, leading to serious violations of international humanitarian law. This has included the emergence of corruption linked to the occupation's management of the crossings during the war of extermination.
In an interview with the QNA, Ba'alousha pointed out that the occupation's misuse of the Gaza Strip's crossings has led to structural and institutional corruption in the management of the crossings during the war. This has created fertile ground for the emergence of unfair practices and corruption, and consequently, the emergence of new forms of corruption that have negatively impacted the local Palestinian economy in the Gaza Strip.
For his part, Vice-President of the Palestinian Contractors Union, Suhail al-Saqa, stressed that the core of the crisis stems from the practices of the Israeli occupation, which has not only imposed a blockade but has also sought to dismantle official Palestinian frameworks, such as the Crossings Authority, to create a state of chaos and rivalry among merchants.
In a separate interview with QNA, he explained that the co-ordination of goods entry from outside the Strip, which was previously managed in an organised manner, has now become a tool in the hands of the occupation, distributed to select individuals in a way that fosters corruption, extortion, and further enables the occupation's control over the type and quantity of goods allowed in.
Al-Saqa called for the formation of a unified committee for co-ordinating goods. This committee would serve as a unified and transparent body to regulate the system, including representatives from the private sector and chambers of commerce, in co-operation with some humanitarian organisations. This committee would be the sole body authorised to manage the matter, free from the control and administration of the occupation. This would restore discipline to the process, ensure transparency, and put an end to the spread of bribery and corruption.
For his part, political researcher Talal Abu Rukba, highlighted that the Israeli occupation has exploited its complete control over the Gaza crossings as a tool of collective punishment within the context of systematic genocide.
Speaking to QNA, Abu Rukba indicated that the occupation has built a complex system devoid of transparency and characterised by exploitation and structural corruption. This has allowed it to control the entry of aid, goods, and the movement of individuals, using humanitarian needs such as medicine, food, and fuel as a political and economic blackmail card, which in turn deepened the population's crises and created an imbalance in the distribution of resources.
He pointed out that the occupation has deliberately emptied Palestinian institutions of any effective role in managing the crossings, exacerbating institutional uncertainty and weakening the ability of national authorities to build good governance based on integrity and transparency. This has led to the entrenchment of an irredeemable administrative model, giving the occupation the ability to control the fate of the population through blackmail tools that violate international and humanitarian law.
In the same context, Chair of the Board of the General Union of Cultural Centres (GUCC) Yusri Darwish, emphasised that the Israeli occupation is at the forefront of the corruption system that has spread during the war in Gaza, exploiting the circumstances of war and genocide to target the entire Palestinian system, from municipalities to civil and tribal institutions.
Speaking to QNA, he explained that the occupation has created chaos in the Gaza Strip by controlling trade and crossings and selectively distributing privileges to merchants, noting that the entry of humanitarian aid has been subject to politicisation and manipulation, as it was for a period of time channelled exclusively through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), before the occupation allowed its return through other channels under international and UN pressure.
Darwish emphasised that the occupation's control and management of the Gaza Strip crossings has transformed them into centres of financial and economic exploitation and corruption, especially given the occupation's insistence on dismantling the previous institutional system that regulated the entry of aid, goods, and the movement of individuals.
The speakers agreed that confronting corrupt Israeli practices in managing the Gaza Strip crossings, and turning them into a tool of collective punishment, requires organised international action, beginning with the establishment of a permanent oversight mechanism under the supervision of the UN or the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to monitor the progress of operations and ensure that the crossings are not used as a tool for political blackmail or collective punishment.
They recommended the activation of an impartial mechanism to monitor the entry of aid and goods, the publication of transparent quarterly reports on the volume of aid and the criteria for rejection or delay, and the documentation of violations and their submission to the Human Rights Council (HRC) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) as crimes under international humanitarian law.
Since the beginning of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli entity has closed all commercial crossings and passenger terminals, and has prevented the entry of goods, humanitarian aid, and medical and health relief supplies. It imposes tight control over the limited items it allows in, which has worsened the humanitarian situation in Gaza and enabled the occupation to exert full control over the management of the crossings.

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