Logistics failure in the Gaza Strip
Israel: UN does not collect aid deliveries
February 16, 2024, 1:53 a.m
Aid organizations see the Gaza Strip on the brink of a famine catastrophe, and Israel is particularly criticized by the United Nations. The Israeli Cogat authority is passing the buck: aid deliveries have not been distributed for days.
Israel has called on the United Nations to improve the distribution of aid to the people of Gaza. Hundreds of truckloads of humanitarian aid have not been picked up at the Kerem Shalom border crossing for days, wrote the Israeli Cogat authority, which is responsible for contacts with the Palestinians and humanitarian aid, on X.
Cogat shared photos showing the contents of 500 trucks with relief supplies on the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom after inspection by Israel, waiting to be picked up and distributed by the UN. Aid organizations accuse Israel of blocking the distribution of aid and warn of a famine catastrophe in Gaza. However, the Cogat authority has repeatedly denied this. According to Cogat, Israel controls more trucks than are ultimately processed and forwarded by the United Nations.
Yesterday, during her visit to Israel, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also spoke out in favor of significantly more aid deliveries to the Palestinian territory – specifically 500 trucks a day. Before the start of the war, that’s how many trucks carrying humanitarian goods drove every day to the coastal area on the Mediterranean sealed off by Israel. Baerbock also called for additional border crossings to be opened in Israel.
Israel opened the Kerem Shalom crossing in mid-December to allow the import of more aid into the contested area. Before the Gaza War, Kerem Shalom served as a crossing point for goods to the Gaza Strip. Following protests by relatives of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip against the importation of aid into the area, Israel recently declared the border crossing a restricted military area. The military wanted to prevent demonstrators from blocking the import of trucks into Gaza.