Amid claims by the Hamas terror group of unprecedented starvation in the Gaza Strip in recent days, a senior Israeli security official said Tuesday that the military had not identified famine, while stressing that actions need to be taken to “stabilize the humanitarian situation.”
The official, speaking with reporters on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that recently there has been a significant drop in the amount of aid reaching Palestinians in the Strip, but blamed United Nations bodies for not collecting and distributing the food and supplies.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military and Defense Ministry body responsible for coordinating aid deliveries to Gaza, said that some 950 trucks worth of supplies are waiting to be collected by the UN from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings.
The official said that, on its own, the aid currently waiting at the crossings for collection was enough to supply the Strip’s food needs for two and a half weeks.
“We have not identified starvation at this current point in time, but we understand that action is required to stabilize the humanitarian situation,” the official said, adding that there may be difficulties with accessibility to food in some areas, which he said was an issue that needs to be solved.
The determination came following a “deep assessment” of the humanitarian situation in Gaza held by COGAT, he said.
The official said that COGAT had sat down with UN officials to try and work out the deliveries of the mounting aid that has been allowed into Gaza but not distributed.
According to the official, there were no issues with the aid reaching the crossings and entering Gaza, but the main bottleneck was the distribution itself. During the recent meetings, the official said it was agreed that the UN would distribute 70-80 trucks on Tuesday, but in practice, only 30 were taken in.
The UN has repeatedly claimed that COGAT has refused its requests for collection and distribution authorization, and that dangerous and complex conditions inside Gaza made aid distribution very difficult.
According to the UN, Israel’s restrictions and permit rejections are the reason for the mounting stockpiles of aid at the crossings, as aid organizations are regularly barred from transferring aid to warehouses and distribution sites. Convoys that don’t coordinate their travel with Israeli authorities and do not have hard-to-obtain approvals come under deadly IDF fire.
The official said that the UN has made requests that COGAT cannot agree to concerning the deliveries, such as demanding that Hamas police escort the convoys, or that they be allowed to bring in communication devices that Israel fears could end up in the terror group’s hands.
Regarding the famine claims, the official said that Hamas was taking advantage of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and carrying out a propaganda campaign as part of a pressure tactic amid the ongoing hostage negotiations. “This is a cynical and timed move aimed at creating international pressure on Israel,” the official said.
Hamas’s health ministry on Tuesday said that hospitals in Gaza had recorded 15 deaths, including four children, “due to famine and malnutrition” in the previous 24 hours, adding that it brought the total number of cases since the beginning of the war to 101, “including 80 children.”
The official said Israel can determine that there is no widespread famine in Gaza based on how much aid was reaching Gazans, saying, “We know the calorie value of each truck that enters, and how many people it is enough for.” The official said COGAT had also spoken with Palestinians involved in distributing the aid, and obtained other intelligence indicating there is no famine
In the past two months, some 4,500 trucks of aid have entered Gaza, according to COGAT. Half of those trucks have headed to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution sites, and the other half were taken to warehouses belonging to the UN and other approved aid organizations. In the past month, an average of 71 trucks entered Gaza each day, COGAT said.
Still, the official said that nearly all of the aid trucks heading to the aid organization warehouses were looted by Gazan mobs, not Hamas.
Since the resumption of aid deliveries to Gaza on May 19, after a pause that started on March 2, Israel has established a new mechanism to prevent aid trucks from being taken over by Hamas, the official said.
The mechanism only allows for international aid bodies that are registered with Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry to bring aid into Gaza, after rigorous security checks at the border crossings. The mechanism also places sanctions on aid groups and individuals who do not abide by Israel’s requirements.
The official said Hamas was trying to do everything it could to undermine the new aid mechanism, including the GHF distribution sites. International organizations have said that Israel’s refusal to name a viable governing alternative to Hamas has created a chaotic and desperate situation on the ground that has significantly marred aid distribution.
The US- and Israel-backed GHF system, which has been delivering aid in Gaza over the past two months under a mechanism aimed at diverting Hamas theft, has been plagued with problems.
The United Nations said Tuesday that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while trying to access food in Gaza since the GHF started aid distribution operations, apparently citing Hamas figures.
Israel has admitted to firing shots toward crowds of Palestinians approaching troops, but claims casualty figures are inflated, without presenting alternative tolls.
In addition to near-daily deadly shootings, it has forced Palestinians to walk long distances while crossing IDF lines to pick up aid. The GHF has also not been vetting the thousands of aid recipients picking up boxes of food, due to the utterly chaotic situation at distribution sites, so there is no way to confirm the humanitarian assistance is reaching its intended recipients. Hamas has come out strongly against the GHF, warning civilians not to cooperate with the organization.
On Monday, over two dozen Western countries called for Israel to immediately end the war in Gaza and criticized what they described as “inhumane killing” of Palestinians, saying it was “horrifying” that civilians were being killed while seeking aid.