Gaza Response

Before Gaza Assault:

The ERC had a considerable and effective role in providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, caring for the Palestinians who are stuck at the Egyptian side as a result of closing border crossing in 2006, 2007, 2008 as the number of stuck people sometimes reached 10,000 Palestinians. In coordination with South Sinai governorate, the NGOs, the Governorate donors, the ERC established and prepared shelters for them that were supplied with the basic living requirements. The ERC provided and supervised the delivery of food aids to stuck people during their stay at the Egyptian side.

The ERC successfully stood up to the incident of the flow of hundreds of thousands of Gaza citizens into the Egyptian side in January 2008 to provide for their needs in consequence of the dire circumstances of siege as flow continued for five days. In coordination with North Sinai governorate, the Palestinians were taken care of and were provided residences. During such period, the ERC provided continuous aids to the Palestinian people amounting to 52,383,735 million pounds.

During and after Gaza Assault (December 27, 2009)

Since the start the hostilities, Rafah border was open by the concerned authority to transport emergency and relief materials. Both Arish air and seaports were opened to receive donations. 24-hours operation rooms were established in ERC Headquarters, Arish and Rafah. Necessary staff and volunteers were recruited and trained in various disciplines.

Cooperation and networking were established with the International RC/RC movement components, regional NS, PNS as well as relevant UN and governmental organization.

RC/RC action definitely had a positive impact on the besieged Gaza Palestinian population. Several visitors, who visited Gaza after hostilities confirmed the great impact.

Partnership and Networking:

Immediately following the attacks, ERC took the necessary steps to establish partnership with all concerned bodies; IFRC, ICRC, PRC, Regional NS, PNS as well as UN organizations, WHO, WFP, UNICEF, OCHA, UNFPA, UNDP, FAO, UNRWA and concerned authorities in the Egyptian Government.
A meeting of the Executive Committee of Arab Red Crescent and Red Cross Organization (ARCO) headed by Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, President of ERC, was held on January 05, 2009.

Mrs. Mubarak also headed 2 coordination meetings with the Heads of the components RCRC movement and directors of the concerned UN organizations on January 10^th 2009. Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was represented in both meetings. Coordination committees were established both at the central level and in the field in Arish and Rafah.


Regular meetings of the central committees were held while the field coordination committees meet on a daily basis. Various subcommittees (clusters and cells) were established to decide and solve ongoing issues. This proved effective in solving various challenges regarding delivery, storage and transportation of donations.

IFRC delegation to ERC cooperated in ERC activities in Cairo, Arish and Rafah during the first three weeks of the attack. Various ICRC delegates and experts in disaster relief, logistics, communication and information participated with ERC and IFRC team during the same period to formulate logistic plan, reporting system and provide appropriate training.

Many regional NS, PNSs, UN organizations had resident delegates approved by ERC in Arish and Rafah regularly attended the daily meetings together with North Sinai authorities.

Various joint follow up missions to Arish and Rafah were carried out including ERC, PRC, ICRC and IFRC.

Enhancing RC Capacity:

Through support of IFRC and the Egyptian Ministry of Communication, 24-hour emergency rooms were established in ERC Headquarters, Arish and Rafah branches equipped with state of the art international communication facilities.

Three senior staff of ERC Headquarters joined ERC North Sinai Staff in Arish on a rotatory basis from the beginning of operations until June 30, 2009 to ensure proper accomplishment of services.  

Training courses for ERC staff and volunteers at Headquarters and North Sinai branch were carried out by various experts recruited at the national level as well as by IFRC , ICRC  and certain UN organizations on logistics, statistics, reporting, warehousing, psychological support and first aid.

A simplified logistic chart and reporting forms were formulated.  

A group helping in transportation of relief material from Arish airport or Seaport either directly to Rafah outlets or to the warehouses for temporary storage.

A qualified group to offer assistance to the injured Palestinians during their transportation to the concerned hospitals and another group to offer psychological support to the accompanying relatives.

A small number of volunteers were trained in logistics, statistics and reporting system to assist ERC staff in Arish and Rafah emergency rooms

Red Cross and Red Crescent Action:

Immediately following the attacks, the Secretary General of ERC and the Head of Disaster Relief Department of ERC visited Arish and met the governor of North Sinai and the concerned staff in Rafah outlets. Decisions were taken regarding establishment of warehouses, hiring extra trucks for transportation, recruiting volunteers and establishing 24 hours emergency services both in Arish and in Rafah ERC branches.

Donation of relief materials started pouring through Arish airport and occasionally the seaport. The coordination committees, ERC and the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs were working hard in order to schedule the arrival of the relief materials.

The donations were donated by international, regional governmental humanitarian organizations as well as RC/RC National Societies. Only few of NS arranged type and time of donation with ERC or PRC before shipment. Certain governmental institutions (France – Japan - Swiss) contacted ERC and arranged to send relief material. 

Following cessation of hostilities donations of relief material continued pouring in, mainly through air and land. After various high level arrangements it was agreed to transport medical equipment and drugs through Rafah outlet while other relief material are transported through Karam Shaloum or Ouga outlet which is more than 100 Km South of Rafah . This put a tremendous burden on ERC staff and volunteers transporting non-medical equipments to Ouga, occasionally waiting for days until permission is re-obtained for various reasons.

Donation received from (Qatar - Libya - Saudi Arabia - Algeria - Kuwait - Bahrain - Turkey - Jordan - Sudan - Yemen - Oman - Russia - Tunis - Morocco - Emirates - Venezuela - South Africa - France - Italy - Indonesia - Switzerland - Japan - Singapore - United Kingdom - Argentine - Iraq – Scotland - Malta ).

From December 27, 2008 till August 2, 2010 the following items were transported to Gaza: *

* This represents donations transported during this period. Remainder were stored

By the end of hostilities, 12,000.00 tons of relief materials in various warehouses and stores were waiting to be transported. A monitoring system was established to follow up their gradual transportation either through Rafah or Ouga outlet. Perishable material (food and others) were distributed to Palestinian in Arish before expiry dates after getting permission from the donors. Few items had to be destroyed by special committees. 

The 24-hour operating room in Cairo, Rafah and Arish, and a daily reporting on the prepared forms is maintained up till now.

The following list shows the value of the humanitarian donations sent by the Egyptian Red Crescent to Palestine during the period of 2003 – 2009.

Passage of Individuals:

Injured people in Gaza entered Egypt through Rafah outlet since the second day after the onset of hostilities 967 of injured Palestinian were transferred through the Egyptian government ambulances to nearby referral hospitals in Arish, Ismalia, Cairo depending on the injury. The Egyptian Ministry of Health covered all expenses. ERC volunteers assisted in transporting of injuries and offered psychological support.

Several countries (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Libya, Jordan, Tunis and Morocco) received injured Palestinian directly from North Sinai by special planes. The Egyptian Ministry of Health referred serious causes for treatment abroad.

After cession of hostilities, various national societies, humanitarian, governmental, regional and international organizations requested permission to visit Gaza. ERC was in continuous contact with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PRC, concerned authorities and UN organizations to facilitate their visit. Hundred of Doctors, nurses, experts, doctors of UN delegation, human rights activities and other successfully visited Gaza and reported back.

Challenges:

• Over flow of relief material and donations, some of which are not needed.

• Complaints by donor organizations requesting immediate transfer of their donation instead of temporary storage.

• Arrival of donations to Arish airport without previous communication or approval by ERC or concerned authorities.

• Donors frequently do not send complete documents with their donations.

• Difficulty to get permission from concerned parties to transport certain donations (generators, clothing, building material …etc).

• Conflicting priorities of transporting donations by the donors, governmental authorities, PRC and ERC.

• Delays and difficulties in transporting relief material through Ouga airport, with extra unnecessary expenses and difficulties to persuade drivers to spend 2 or 3 days in the desert until re-permission are obtained.

• Packing and repacking of stored donated relief material to fulfill required criteria before transportation is costly. The donor is usually unavailable to cover this extra cost.
  

• Insufficient staff (governmental and ERC) in Arish trained in logistics, warehouse management.

The governorate of North Sinai in consultation with ERC identified few warehouses for storage of relief material until transportation. The governor also prepared spaces for temporary storage in Arish stadium. ERC provided 4 rubhalls that were erected in the stadium as temporary warehouses.

Various donors as well UNHCR, IFRC, and ICRC provided donations to purchase relief material to face any influx of Palestinians into Rafah and Arish. These included tents, mattresses, clothes, kitchen equipments, and generators ….etc. Although they were not used during the attacks, they were stored as reserve relief material in case they are needed in the future in the warehouses of ERC at Headquarters, Arish and Rafah.

Restoring Family Links (RFL) unit in ERC Headquarters and North Sinai branch were strengthened and were helpful in liaising families of the injured Palestinians who were transported to Egyptian hospitals.

Advocacy and Communication:

All activities were covered by national and international media, which occasionally resulted in difficulties since it promoted more donations from various donors world wide that were not needed.

ERC updated its website to provide daily information on the various activities: donations by land, air and sea, transportation, storage, packing and repacking, support to the injured Palestinians as well as the various coordination meetings.

ERC presented ERC activities and partnership in several national international meetings in Geneva, Barcelona and Libya. ERC participated in the International Conference for rehabilitation of Gaza in Sharm El Sheikh on March 02, 2009.

Mobilization of Volunteers:

ERC mobilized more than 300 volunteers to cover the various activities. These volunteers were recruited from ERC Headquarters as well as the near by ERC branches in the Sharkeya and Suez Canal region in addition to the local volunteers in North Sinai branch . After proper training, the volunteers were assigned to several groups:

A group at Arish airport to assist in disembarking of relief material arriving by air together with ERC and governmental staff.

A group at Arish seaport to offer assistance to concerned authorities in disembarking, packing, repacking donations transported by sea.