Expo Dubai 2020 continues a grand tradition of international exhibitions 

People walk towards the Sustainability Pavilion, a week ahead of its public opening, at the Dubai Expo 2020 in Dubai on January 16, 2021. (AFP)
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Updated 01 September 2021
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Expo Dubai 2020 continues a grand tradition of international exhibitions 

  • World Expos are viewed as a powerful tool for cultural expression and economic development
  • Saudi pavilion holds three Guinness World Records before Expo Dubai 2020 has even opened

DUBAI: Although the term mega event had not yet been coined, there is no question that the first-ever World Expo at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851 was just that. The Great Exhibition was a high-profile spectacle that changed the face of the Victorian capital and captivated the world.

Such was the success of this inaugural World Expo that a grand tradition of international exhibitions, hosted by different cities around the world, was born.

To this day, World Expos are considered a powerful tool for cultural expression and economic development, their impact felt for decades after in the form of trade and diplomatic exchanges.

World Expos are also widely recognized for their architectural legacy. Host nations often invest huge sums in infrastructure projects, vying with one another for signature structures. The iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris was famously unveiled as the centerpiece of the French-hosted 1889 Exposition Universelle.

In 1893, the organizing committee for the World Expo in Chicago was deeply concerned about how to out-Eiffel Eiffel, leading to some truly fringe concepts. One of the suggested designs for Chicago’s signature structure was a replica of the globe spanning 300 meters (the height of the Eiffel Tower), and a scale model of one of explorer Christopher Columbus’ ships.

Another concept called for the construction of a towering spire three kilometers in height — more than three times taller than Dubai’s Burj Khalifa — from which a network of elevated rails would connect Chicago to other cities, including New York, and Boston. Needless to say, the concept was not approved.

The enormous popularity of the Eiffel Tower triggered fierce competition. But although the tower is perhaps the most enduring icon of World Expo architecture, its construction was not without controversy.

In 1886, just three years before the Exposition Universelle was scheduled to coincide with the centenary of the French Revolution, the organizing committee put out a call for design proposals for a fitting Parisian monument.




In addition to architectural wonders, Expo 2020 Dubai promises a host of cultural encounters, debuting the first Emirati opera and a range of public artworks spread across the site. (Emirates News Agency)

One of these proposed building a 300-meter guillotine, a grisly reference to the regicidal excesses of the French Revolution. The idea was predictably rejected and the concept for what would become the world’s tallest structure of its day was given the go-ahead.

Originally derided as a “tragic streetlamp” by many of the French cultural elite, the Eiffel Tower turned out to be exceptionally popular among visitors.

The structure was supposed to be torn down 20 years after the Expo, but during World War I it proved to be an excellent radio transmitter in support of the French war effort. Today, the Eiffel Tower is the most visited monument in the world.

With World Expos growing in scale and ambition, they nurtured global curiosity about distant and exotic nations. As the number of visitors touched millions, the cultural and ideological influence of World Expos had become palpably manifest.




The Saudi Arabia Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai under construction. (Shutterstock/File Photo)

At the 1937 World Expo in Paris, the pavilions of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany offered two very different responses to the theme of modern life. The two pavilions — designed by, respectively, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler’s favorite architects — even faced one another in a kind of microcosmic standoff between two totalitarian regimes.

The German architect had somehow managed to lay his hands on the design specifications for the Soviet pavilion in advance and used them to literally one-up the Soviets, making the Nazi pavilion taller and more imposing.

The perceived confrontation between the two powers was widely interpreted by the media as representative of Europe’s secret hope that war could be averted if the two regimes could be pitted against one another. History, of course, tells a different story.

By the 1958 World Expo in Brussels, it was the US and the Soviet Union’s turn to face off in a game of Cold War brinkmanship. Tensions were high, but the exhibition offered a rare opportunity for direct contact when 16,000 Soviet citizens travelled to the West for the event.




General aerial view of Terra - The Sustainability Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai (Photo by Dany Eid/Expo 2020 Dubai)

As part of its strategy to weaken communist influence, America’s Central Intelligence Agency commissioned a special Russian-language print run of Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago, set against the backdrop of the Bolshevik revolution, and partnered with the Vatican pavilion to distribute copies. In the pavilion, called Civitas Dei (City of God), the secret book was pressed into the hands of Soviet visitors.

The CIA considered the mission a success. However, Pasternak had not been informed of the plan or its execution and was none too happy about it, especially since the CIA edition was littered with errors. However, the operation may have helped pave the way for Pasternak to win the Nobel Prize for literature.

For visitors, experiential and immersive attractions often constitute the core of the World Expo experience. At the New York World’s Fair in 1939, Spanish artist Salvador Dali designed a surrealist funhouse called Dream of Venus intended to counter the fair’s focus on progress and modernity.

One critic said: “The world of machines, cars, and robots had been replaced — or should one say challenged — by a universe of dreams where one could feel a sense of decadence which no doubt clashed with the proposed cleanliness, order, and clarity of the surroundings. What one saw in the pavilion, in fact, was blurred, confusing, not clear at all.”




Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio (2nd R) and Florence mayor Dario Nardella (R) attend a ceremony at the Italian pavillion at Expo 2020 Dubai. (AFP/File Photo)

The pavilion would have been even more confusing had Dali’s original plan been approved, which included live giraffes that would have been exploded as a part of the exhibit. Fortunately for the giraffes, the cruel spectacle was never allowed to happen.

The upcoming World Expo in Dubai, which opens on Oct. 1, has already unveiled its signature structure — its Eiffel for the Emirates, as it were — in the form of the awe-inspiring Al-Wasl dome, which will be used to create immersive shows, projections, and performances.

The UAE pavilion has been designed to look like a falcon at rest, complete with movable wings, while the Saudi pavilion, the largest of all participating nations, holds three Guinness World Records: For the largest LED mirror screen display, the largest interactive floor, and the longest water exhibit.




A night view of the Terra-Sustainability Pavilion at the Dubai Expo 2020 site. (Supplied)

In addition to architectural wonders, Expo 2020 Dubai promises a host of cultural encounters, debuting the first Emirati opera and a range of public artworks spread across the site. The Arab tradition of storytelling will be integrated into every experience and will connect visitors from around the globe.

Over a period of 182 days, the first World Expo to take place in the Arab world will tell the region’s story and create its own piece of Expo legacy. And hopefully, true to Expo style, there will be a few surprises thrown in too.

 


UN Security Council condemns attacks on peacekeeping forces in Lebanon

Updated 14 November 2024
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UN Security Council condemns attacks on peacekeeping forces in Lebanon

  • Several UN peacekeepers have been injured in southern Lebanon since a year of skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah escalated into fierce clashes in the past month
  • Council members say peacekeepers must never be the target of attacks and urge all involved in the conflict to respect their safety and security

NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council on Wednesday condemned attacks in southern Lebanon in recent weeks in which several UN peacekeeping troops have been injured.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon continues to monitor hostilities in the south of the country along the demarcation line separating it from Israel. A year of skirmishes between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters in border areas have escalated into fierce clashes in the past month.

Israel accuses the UN peacekeeping forces of providing cover for Hezbollah and has told UNIFIL to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon for their own safety. The international force has refused to comply, instead vowing to remain and carry out its mandate along the Blue Line of demarcation between the two countries, which was established by the UN in June 2000. It has issued several warnings that the Israeli army’s “deliberate and direct destruction of clearly identifiable UNIFIL property is a flagrant violation of international law” and UN resolutions.

Without mentioning Israel by name, the 15 members of the UN Security Council on Wednesday urged all parties involved in the conflict to take all possible steps to respect the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel and facilities, and said peacekeepers must never be the target of attacks.

The council reiterated its “full support” for UNIFIL, underscored “its role in supporting regional stability,” and expressed “deep appreciation” to the countries that contribute troops to the force.

Council members also expressed “deep concern for civilian casualties and suffering, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the damage to cultural heritage sites in Lebanon, and endangerment of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Baalbeck and Tyre, and the rising number of internally displaced people.”

They called on “all parties” to abide by international humanitarian law and fully implement Security Council resolutions.


Israeli airforce bombs Syria-Lebanon border

Updated 14 November 2024
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Israeli airforce bombs Syria-Lebanon border

  • A leading monitor said that 15 people had been wounded in the strikes in an area of Syria’s Homs region
  • “Earlier today, with the direction of IDF (military) intelligence, the IAF (Israeli airforce) struck smuggling routes between Syria and Lebanon,” the army said

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said that it carried out air strikes on Wednesday along the border with Syria and Lebanon, with state media in Damascus saying that key infrastructure had been targeted.
A leading monitor said that 15 people had been wounded in the strikes in an area of Syria’s Homs region which is a known stronghold of Lebanon’s Hezbollah although there was no immediate confirmation from Syrian authorities.
Israel rarely comments on its military operations in Syria but it did confirm the strikes which had been first reported by the Syrian state news agency Sana.
“Earlier today, with the direction of IDF (military) intelligence, the IAF (Israeli airforce) struck smuggling routes between Syria and Lebanon,” the army said in a statement.
“These routes coming from the Syrian side of the border into Lebanon are used to smuggle weapons to the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”
The Sana news agency said that “the Israeli aggression” on the Homs region had been met with a barrage of anti-aircraft fire.
Citing a military source, Sana said that the Israeli planes had targeted bridges along the Orontes river and roads around the Syria-Lebanon border.
The strikes had caused “significant damage,” according to the source, putting some of the infrastructure out of action, without giving details.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor also said that Israeli military aircraft had hit Syrian bridges and military checkpoints.
Fifteen members of the Syrian armed forces or allied groups had been wounded in the strikes, said the observatory which has a vast network of contacts throughout Syria.
But since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, it has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syrian government forces and groups supported by its arch-foe Iran, notably Hezbollah troops that have been deployed to assist Assad’s regime.
Israel has carried out frequent raids on highways on the Lebanese side of the border with Syria to cut off potential weapons supplies since a major escalation of its conflict with Hezbollah in September.


How Syrians in war-torn Lebanon are coping with double displacement

Updated 14 November 2024
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How Syrians in war-torn Lebanon are coping with double displacement

  • Syrians face increasing barriers to shelter and aid access in Lebanon due to overcrowding and mounting hostility
  • Lebanon has the highest refugee population per capita globally, hosting 1.5 million Syrians prior the current escalation

LONDON: Syrians displaced to Lebanon by the civil war in their home country have found themselves on the move once again, as Israel’s targeting of the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia has forced more than a million people from their homes.

Many Syrians, unable to return home for fear of conscription or arrest, face a difficult dilemma — whether to ride out the conflict in Lebanon, despite deepening poverty and mounting hostility, or even risk the irregular sea crossing to Cyprus or beyond.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been trading blows along the Lebanese border since Oct. 8, 2023, when the militia began rocketing northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas, its Palestinian militia ally, which had just attacked southern Israel, sparking the Gaza war.

However, in September this year, the Israeli military suddenly ramped up its attacks on Hezbollah positions across Lebanon, disrupting its communications network, destroying arms caches, and eliminating much of its senior leadership.

Israeli jets have pounded Hezbollah positions in towns and villages across southern Lebanon and its strongholds in the suburbs of the capital, Beirut, while ground forces have mounted “limited” incursions into Lebanese territory.

More than 1.2 million people have been displaced since the hostilities began more than a year ago, according to UN figures. Among them, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, has identified 34,000 Syrians who have been secondarily displaced since October 2023.

For Lebanese civilians, the conflict has revived grim memories of the devastating 2006 war with Israel and the civil war years of 1975-90. For Syrians, though, the memories of conflict and displacement are even more raw, with the 13-year civil war in their home country still ongoing.

A picture shows smoke billowing from a tissue factory after an overnight Israeli strike on the Lebanese city of Baalbeck in the Bekaa valley on October 11, 2024. (AFP)

Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon took part in the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, on the side of the Bashar Assad regime against armed opposition groups, thereby contributing to the mass displacement of Syrians that followed.

“Refugees who have fled their homeland in search of safety and security are now facing the reality of being displaced once again in Lebanon due to ongoing hostilities,” Lisa Abou Khaled, a UNHCR spokesperson, told Arab News.

“This double displacement exacerbates their vulnerability.”

UNHCR reported that more than 400,000 people, at least 70 percent of them Syrians, have crossed the border into Syria to escape the escalating violence in Lebanon. However, for many, returning home is not an option.


Rescue workers remove rubble, as they search for victims at the site that was hit by Israeli airstrikes in Qana village, south Lebanon, on Oct. 16, 2024. (AP)

The alternative is to remain in Lebanon, where Syrians have reportedly been denied access to work, housing, and services amid the country’s economic crisis, and mounting hostility from Lebanese citizens who believe their own needs have been overlooked.

Rabab, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, spent several nights sleeping rough in Sidon’s Martyrs’ Square last month before locals offered her and her husband a place to stay.

“When we visited the municipality, they refused to register our names and said priority was given to displaced Lebanese families,” Rabab, who is originally from northwest Syria, told Arab News.

“Returning to Syria now is out of the question as I have no family left there, and my husband will face conscription.”

INNUMBERS

• 1.2 million: People displaced by conflict in Lebanon since October 2023.

• 34,000: Syrians in Lebanon who have been secondarily displaced.

• 400,000: Displaced people, 70 percent of them Syrians, who have fled to Syria.

(Source: UNHCR)

The result has been a growing number of Syrian families displaced from southern Lebanon sleeping rough on the streets of Sidon and other cities, with the buzz of Israeli drones and jets overhead and winter temperatures fast approaching.

“Many displaced Syrians in Lebanon, particularly those newly displaced due to recent escalations, face significant challenges in accessing shelters,” Tania Baban, the Lebanon country director of the US-based charity MedGlobal, told Arab News.

Recounting an incident in Sidon, where displaced Syrians had been turned away “due to a lack of shelter capacity,” Baban said: “Municipalities in regions have implemented restrictions, often barring entry to Syrian displaced people, citing overcrowding or security concerns.

Syrian children, who had to fled their country after the outbreak of the war in Syria in 2011 and migrated to Lebanon, are seen in an area where refugees live in Sidon city of Lebanon on October 7, 2024. (Anadolu via Getty Images)

“As a result, some families are sleeping in informal makeshift camps, abandoned buildings, or even out in the open parking lots in Sidon,” she added, stressing that the situation is particularly dire in areas like the capital, Beirut, which was already overpopulated prior to the escalation.

Hector Hajjar, Lebanon’s caretaker minister of social affairs, has denied accusations of discrimination against displaced Syrians. According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, Hajjar said earlier this month that his government was committed to safeguarding all affected groups.

Stressing that “UNHCR appreciates Lebanon’s generous hospitality in hosting so many refugees and understands the challenges this adds at this very delicate juncture,” the UN agency’s spokesperson Abou Khaled called on “all actors to maintain and apply humanitarian principles and allow equal access to assistance.”

“Newly displaced Syrians and Lebanese in several regions tell us that they have had to sleep in the open,” she said, adding that “UNHCR and partners are working with the relevant authorities on finding urgent solutions to this issue.”

Lebanon has the most refugees per capita in the world, hosting some 1.5 million Syrians prior to the current escalation, according to government estimates.

Zaher Sahloul, president of MedGlobal, called on humanitarian agencies to “act swiftly to provide the protection and support these refugees urgently need.”

“Every person, regardless of nationality, deserves to be treated with dignity and compassion during this crisis,” he said in a statement in late September.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case for many Syrians in Lebanon.

Footage has emerged on social media showing the purported abuse of Syrians. In one such video, a man was seen tied to a post on a city street while the person filming claims this was done because people in Syria’s Idlib had celebrated the death of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Meanwhile, some Lebanese politicians have seized upon the worsening situation in Lebanon to advance an anti-Syrian agenda, insisting Syria is now safe for them to return.

Syrian Red Crescent rescuers attend to displaced people arriving from Lebanon at the Jdeidat Yabus border crossing in southwestern Syria on October 7, 2024. (AFP)

Last month, Bachir Khodr, the governor of Baalbek-Hermel, told Al-Jadeed TV that “the reason for the Syrians’ presence is the war in Syria. This war has ended, so they must now leave Lebanon, as the war is here now.”

Lebanon has endured a crippling economic crisis since 2019, which has plunged much of the population into poverty. In recent years, Lebanese politicians have characterized displaced Syrians as a burden on society and called for their deportation.

Despite human rights organizations unanimously agreeing in May that no part of Syria is safe for returnees, a UNHCR report in March highlighted that 13,772 Syrians had been deported from Lebanon or pushed back at the border with Syria in about 300 incidents in 2023.

Children sit in a bus as Syrians who were refugees in Lebanon return to their home country after a five-day journey to the northern Idlib province where they are received at a temporary resting point in the town of Qah, on October 4, 2024. (AFP)

Human Rights Watch also reported in April that Lebanese authorities “have arbitrarily detained, tortured, and forcibly returned Syrians to Syria,” including activists and army defectors.

Disputing the findings, Khodr, the governor of Baalbek-Hermel, argued that the return of some “235,000 displaced Syrians” to their country “challenges the theory that the Syrian authorities might arrest those returning to it.”

“We have repeatedly said that the Syrian side has not harassed any of its citizens who have returned since the start of the voluntary return campaigns in 2018, but rather they have been treated in the best possible way,” Khodr posted on the social platform X on Oct. 8.

However, the UK-based Syrian Network for Human Rights reported that Syrian authorities have arrested 23 individuals who had returned from Lebanon since September.

Syrians who were refugees in Lebanon return to their home country after a journey to the opposition held northern Idlib province through the crossing Aoun al-Dadat north of Manbij, on October 9, 2024. Lebanon became home to hundreds of thousands of Syrians after the repression of anti-government protests in Syria in 2011 sparked a war that has since killed more than half a million people. (AFP)

For those Syrians who have chosen to remain in Lebanon, despite its many challenges, assistance provided by humanitarian aid agencies has become a vital lifeline.

Abou Khaled of UNHCR said her agency “is working relentlessly with humanitarian partners and Lebanese authorities to urgently find safe shelter for those without any.”

“A comprehensive emergency shelter strategy has been shared with proposed shelter solutions in all Lebanese regions and work is ongoing at the cadastre and district levels to implement parts of it.”

She added: “Current hostilities, compounded by the ongoing socio-economic situation, create challenges for all communities, all of whom deserve equal access to safety and dignity.”
 

 


Israel’s ban on UN agency for Palestinian refugees will have ‘catastrophic consequences’

Updated 13 November 2024
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Israel’s ban on UN agency for Palestinian refugees will have ‘catastrophic consequences’

  • UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini says entire generation of Palestinians will be denied right to an education
  • UN member states urged to consider the effects Israel’s decision on the ‘international rules-based order’

An Israeli law banning the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees will have “catastrophic consequences” that threaten regional stability, the head of the organization warned on Wednesday.

In an impassioned plea to the General Assembly, Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, urged member states to take action to prevent Israel’s move against his organization.

The Israeli parliament voted last month to cut ties with UNRWA and ban it from operating in Israel. The law, which is expected to be implemented within three months, will severely limit the agency’s ability to operate in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, where millions of Palestinians rely on its services.

Meanwhile, the appalling humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, with international aid groups accusing Israel this week of failing to meet US demands to alleviate the suffering.

Lazzarini spelled out the severity of the situation in his address to the General Assembly as he issued stark warnings about the far-reaching implications of the decision to ban UNRWA. He said it would not only cause the humanitarian response in Gaza to collapse but also deal a blow to the international rules-based order under which all UN agencies must operate.

“The risk of the agency’s collapse threatens the lives and futures of individuals and communities, the stability of the region, and the integrity of our multilateral system,” Lazzarini said.

UNRWA, he added, has become another casualty of the war in Gaza, during which Israeli forces have killed more than 43,000 people, the majority of them women and children. He said famine has probably already taken hold in the territory, and hunger and disease are widespread.

“The implementation of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) legislation will have catastrophic consequences,” Lazzarini said.

“In Gaza, dismantling UNRWA will collapse the United Nations’ humanitarian response, which relies heavily on the agency’s infrastructure.”

He went on to highlight the devastating effects the ban would have on education in Gaza, where “in the absence of a capable public administration or state, only UNRWA can deliver education to more than 660,000 girls and boys.

“In the absence of UNRWA, an entire generation will be denied the right to education. Their future will be sacrificed, sowing the seeds for marginalization and extremism.”

Schooling for a further 50,000 children in the West Bank would also be under threat, along with primary health care for half a million Palestinian refugees.

Lazzarini repeated previous requests for UN member states to do whatever they can to halt the implementation of the Israeli ban and maintain funding for UNRWA. He painted Israel’s actions targeting the agency as representing a wider threat to the UN and the multilateral world order under which it operates.

“The United Nations and its staff are in an increasingly untenable position; if the legal and political framework within which we operate does not hold, we cannot stay and deliver,” he said.

Speaking later to the press, Lazzarini said there had been much anger and condemnation in response to the Israeli law and he hopes there might still be some pathway to prevent its implementation. But he conceded this might be “wishful thinking.”

The Israeli law was widely criticized in the region and the wider international community. Saudi Arabia described it as a “flagrant violation of international law and a direct violation of the rules of international legitimacy.”

On Tuesday, the US said Israeli authorities had made some progress in increasing the flow of aid to Gaza and, as a result, Washington would not limit weapons transfers to the country. However, this came as a report published by eight international aid agencies said conditions in the territory were worse than at any point in the war.

Israel claims that some UNRWA staff took part in the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel last year, which killed about 1,200 people and sparked the war in Gaza. The UN reacted by firing nine of the agency’s workers that might have been involved. Lazzarini said the agency has a “zero-tolerance approach” to any breaches of its neutrality.


Why is only limited aid getting to Palestinians inside Gaza?

Updated 13 November 2024
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Why is only limited aid getting to Palestinians inside Gaza?

  • Aid groups accuse the Israeli military of hindering and even blocking shipments in Gaza

JERUSALEM: The US decided not to punish Israel over the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip after giving it an ultimatum to increase aid entering the territory. But the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians is still at nearly its lowest level of the entire 13-month-old war.

The White House last month gave Israel 30 days to improve conditions or risk losing military support. As the deadline expired Tuesday, leading international aid groups said Israel had fallen far short.

But the US State Department announced it would not take any punitive action, saying Israel has made limited progress. However, it called for more steps.

Aid groups accuse the Israeli military of hindering and even blocking shipments in Gaza. Almost the entire population of around 2.3 million Palestinians relies on international aid for survival, and doctors and aid groups say malnutrition is rampant. Food security experts say famine may already be underway in hard-hit north Gaza.

“It’s really frustrating because by almost every objective metric, all agencies say that the humanitarian situation has gotten worse in that time frame that the US has specified,” Aseel Baidoun, a senior manager of the aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians, said.

“Even though we have provided all the evidence that there is a risk of famine ... still the U.S. miraculously finds Israel not violating the humanitarian aid law.”

Israel, which controls all crossings into Gaza, says it is committed to delivering humanitarian assistance and has scrambled to ramp up aid. 

COGAT, the military body in charge of aid passage, said they had taken a number of steps over the past month to increase the amount entering the territory, including opening a fifth crossing — into central Gaza — this week. 

Israel says the UN and international aid groups need to do a better job of distributing supplies.

Aid into Gaza is typically measured in terms of truckloads of food and supplies entering the territory. The US has demanded 350 trucks daily — still below the 500 a day that entered before the war.

In October, aid entry plunged to its lowest level since the first month of the war. Israeli government figures show roughly 57 trucks a day entering on average. The average has risen to 100 a day so far in November, slightly lower than the same month last year.

The UN, however, says even less is entering. It reports receiving an average of 39 trucks daily since the beginning of October. This is largely because it says it cannot reach the main crossing point in the south to collect cargos due to Israeli military restrictions and lawlessness. The UN says virtually no food or other aid has reached the northernmost part of Gaza since the beginning of October. That’s when the Israeli military launched a major offensive against Hamas fighters in the area of Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, cutting them off.

Israel says October’s drop in aid was because it closed crossings into Gaza during the Jewish high holidays. It said it couldn’t allow deliveries to the far north in October because of the fighting.

Under international pressure, COGAT allowed two deliveries to the far north this month.

But little of it got through. Last week, the World Food Programme said troops on the ground ordered its trucks to unload their cargo before reaching their destination.