(JNS) The United Nations has been unable to deliver hundreds of aid trucks that have entered the Gaza Strip because Israel has given the global body inopportune time slots to collect the supplies, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, told JNS at a press briefing on Monday.
Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, part of the Israeli Defense Ministry, stated on Monday that 194 trucks bearing humanitarian goods were transferred into Gaza. “U.N. aid organizations did not collect any trucks from the Gazan side of Kerem Shalom. Not one,” COGAT said. “All while 114 private sector and other international organizations trucks were collected. Approximately 575 trucks are waiting for collection.”
JNS asked Haq at the U.N. press briefing why the private and other international aid organizations were able to retrieve supplies, while the United Nations could not.
Yesterday, 194 trucks carrying humanitarian goods were transferred to Gaza. @UN aid organizations did not collect any trucks from the Gazan side of Kerem Shalom. Not one.
All while 114 private sector and other international organizations trucks were collected.
Approximately… pic.twitter.com/Kt7ovdxUYY
— COGAT (@cogatonline) August 12, 2024
“There’s a host of reasons for this. One of them has to do with slots in the day when trucks can travel,” Haq told JNS. “Some other groups have been getting daytime slots instead of the United Nations, where we actually have to travel later and in the evening hours, in times that are more dangerous, and therefore, that’s postponed some of our activities.”
Haq also cited a lack of security and unspecified bureaucratic hurdles “that essentially leave us only times in the day that are basically the least-safe times for transport.”
Shimi Zuaretz, a spokesman for COGAT, which serves as the Israeli military’s coordinating body for civilian life in Judea and Samaria, and in Gaza, told JNS that Israel gives the United Nations the same time slots for aid pickup as other groups.
“We give them more time than the private sector and other organizations,” Zuaretz told JNS. “It is uncalled for to think that the private sector has one time and the United Nations has another time.”
Zuaretz—who didn’t identify the time window that Israel gives the United Nations—told JNS that other organizations take the same road that the United Nations does departing Kerem Shalom.
A source in the Israeli Defense Ministry told JNS that on one occasion this summer, the Jewish state contacted the United Nations one morning and offered it a significant window of time later that day to retrieve aid and clear out the large truck backlog.
United Nations staff showed up at 9 p.m. and only collected aid for four hours, leaving the backlog largely in place, the source said.
Later in the U.N. press briefing, a Voice of America reporter asked Haq if the global body believes that the Jewish state is intentionally giving the United Nations a bad time slot.
“There may be many factors contributing to why this happens, but certainly it’s imperative that we have the ability to deliver aid safely, and we do not have that currently,” Haq said.
‘Multiple impediments’
U.N. officials have complained repeatedly that aid entry into Gaza has decreased rapidly since Israel began its military operation in the border city of Rafah on May 6, which led to the closure of the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
Kerem Shalom, the main crossing between Israel and Gaza that is being used to transfer aid, remains open as do other areas, including the Erez crossing that Hamas used during the Oct. 7 terror attacks. Significant amounts of aid have passed through Erez since it reopened and was converted from a pedestrian to an aid screening point.
Haq said on Friday that since Rafah closed, “the volume of aid able to be brought from the operational border crossings into Gaza has decreased by more than half,” from a daily average of 169 trucks in April to fewer than 80 trucks daily in June and July.
At Kerem Shalom, “the decrease was even steeper over the past three months, with a more than 80% drop in aid cargo that was brought into Gaza from that border crossing,” Haq said.
JNS asked Haq about COGAT’s response—that Israel gives the United Nations not only the same time slot as other organizations but even an extended one.
Haq said that he stands by what he said at the Monday briefing.
He shared notes with JNS from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which stated that “picking up aid from crossing points is nearly impossible due to multiple impediments” and that “in the face of unending heavy and active hostilities, we have limited our movements at night to protect our staff as much as we can.”
“In addition, roads are damaged, Israeli authorities routinely deny us the access we urgently need and public order and safety is almost non-existent,” OCHA said.
COGAT told JNS that Israel has “facilitated the repair and expansion of routes within the Gaza Strip” and “allowed and facilitated the entry of at least 27 empty trucks to enhance collection at the crossing,” as well as 14 forklifts and other logistical equipment for use by international organizations.
