Humanitarian aid awaits UN staff to collect and distribute to Gazans
(IDF)
Israel's coordinator for government activities in the territories, (COGAT) Major General Ghassan Alian, posted a video showing what he described as the content of 600 trucks worth of humanitarian aid that was delivered from Israel to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing and had accumulated there over the past week.
"We have increased the hours we operate and have added means to expedite security inspections, now it is your turn to do your jobs," the official said in a call to the UN. "Israel is not where the bottleneck is."
Alian posted the images after a substantial increase of the humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom and Nitzana crossings.
Israel has come under fire from the international community for preventing sufficient aid from being transported into Gaza.
Members of the UN Security Council on Thursday published a joint call to immediately remove any obstacle for aid deliveries. Members of the council, including the U.S., did praise Israel's recent steps, including the use of the Ashdod port for humanitarian supplies to arrive and opening an additional crossing into the northern areas of the strip, but they also said Israel must do more.
Now Alian hopes to show the world what is really stopping the aid from reaching the Gazan population in need.
The supplies that are sitting inside Gaza are waiting for UN staff to collect them and distribute their contents.
"There has been a significant increase in humanitarian aid delivered into Gaza after a security inspection," according to a COGAT official. "But the UN is slow to collect and distribute it due to its logistical inability and a shortage of manpower that has resulted in the accumulation of the content of hundreds of trucks, flooding the Palestinian side of the border crossing and preventing additional aid from entering the strip."
Alian said it is the failing of the UN that are harming Israel's efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza. Israeli officials also noted that the tragic killing of members of the World Central Kitchen staff did not impact aid deliveries because the organization was not tasked with collecting the aid after it crosses the border.