Some 800 trucks carrying food and essential supplies are waiting inside Gaza, the IDF said, while the UN and aid agencies fail to collect them because of disputes with Israel.
"The UN is working to prevent the supply of aid, aiming for the distribution to be in the hands of Hamas to control and dispense the aid to the population. We are aware of the disturbing images coming from the Strip, but Israel is not causing the catastrophe," A security official said.
Amid worldwide criticism and accusations that Israel was starving the civilian population in the Strip, the IDF brought reporters to see the trucks that were parked on the Gaza side of the border near Kerem Shalom.
Officials said that Israel had come under increased pressure from the European Union in recent weeks and was warned that sanctions may be imposed. As a result, the government decided to allow aid to be brought in through Jordan and Egypt and to deliver fuel for the UN's critical facilities.
Israel also reopened a border crossing to northern Gaza, at Zikim, after it was closed following armed men confiscating the aid.
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"We are constantly assessing the humanitarian aid situation in Gaza to provide an adequate response to the needs," the security official said. "We are aware of the disturbing images coming from the Strip, but Israel is not causing the catastrophe," the official said.
The UN claims most of the population in Gaza is at risk of starvation. The Hamas Health Ministry said 70,000 children are showing signs of malnutrition and since the start of the war, 113 people have died of hunger, two of them in the last day.
The IDF said on Tuesday that their daily investigations have not revealed hunger in the Strip however, the Israeli claims have been rejected by major media outlets as images of starvations have spread around the world.
"We are trying to survive on an hourly basis," one woman said. "I must go on. I have an eight-month-old baby who does not know the taste of fruit."