More trucks are getting into Gaza, but delays at border are hindering distribution

Long processing delays of trucks entering Gaza are creating a backlog of humanitarian aid in the enclave, thwarting the distribution of food and medical aid to more than 2.2 million people, aid workers say.

Since Sunday, about 400 assistance-carrying trucks a day have entered the enclave from Egypt, the largest number since Israel began its counteroffensive against Hamas in October, according to Israeli government figures.

But aid groups are still having difficulty accessing that aid, which is pooled in a restricted area on the Gazan side of the border overseen by Israel for vetting. Humanitarian organizations have to load that aid onto other trucks and can retrieve the cargo only at certain times of the day, according to four aid workers whose organizations work in Gaza.

While distributing humanitarian aid is difficult in any war zone, the aid workers, who were granted anonymity because they feared retribution by Israel, said Israel’s bureaucratic processing and rules around access are creating particularly large delays in Gaza. Israel has fired back at the aid groups’ allegations, saying the U.N. does not have the capacity to distribute all of the aid it has let through the border.

Whatever the reason for the long delays, it could take weeks, maybe months, for the aid to reach all those who need it, including those in the northern part of the enclave who are still largely blocked off from aid delivery networks.

U.S. officials are also highlighting issues with aid actually reaching people in need in Gaza.

“There have been important steps made in the last few days. But there are still really profound access issues,” U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power said in a Senate hearing Wednesday, noting that Israel still has not fully opened the northern Erez border crossing to international humanitarian organizations.

The chaotic situation comes after President Joe Biden warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that the U.S. would have to reconsider its support of Israel if it did not immediately and significantly increase humanitarian aid access in Gaza.

After that call, Israel expanded access to humanitarian groups and commercial companies at multiple border crossings.

But aid-delivery statistics compiled by Israel, and then cited by the Biden administration, mask the increasingly complicated situation on the ground, the aid workers said.

The official number of trucks that have crossed the border according to Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories agency doesn’t take into account the logjam that has much cargo sitting in the restricted zone inaccessible to aid groups.

“We have around four hours in the morning, on a good day, and maybe two hours or so in the afternoon to collect all the cargo,” said Jenny Baez, the emergency response coordinator for UNRWA, the U.N. arm working in Gaza. “The Israeli side can have uninterrupted operations which can easily record higher numbers.”

One U.S. official, who was granted anonymity to talk about sensitive aid discussions, said the administration was aware of the need to solve the logistical issues compounding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

“We’re working through them,” the official said, “but it’s not easy.”

Aid workers and two other U.S. officials, granted anonymity to detail a sensitive process, say the accounting mechanism is complicated and not uniform, which leads to competing narratives about just how much aid gets into Gaza.

Aid workers argue Israel’s count of the number of trucks arriving from Egypt is misleading because it doesn’t note that those trucks are particularly small, about half as large as the standard trailer truck that aid organizations, including UNRWA, are using to pick up aid.

There’s also confusion about whether there’s an undercounting of aid, because the U.N. counts pallets of aid and Israel’s COGAT counts metric tons. The U.N. doesn’t have a scale on the Gaza side of the border crossing to weigh the aid, Baez said.

In a statement, COGAT blamed any slowdown or discrepancy in numbers on the U.N.’s “logistical distribution difficulties.”

All four aid workers insist not much has changed materially in Gaza since Sunday — when Israel opened additional crossings — in terms of aid access and distribution.

“We’re still having problems getting access to the aid,” one of the aid workers said. “And some of the crossings, including Erez, aren’t fully open to aid groups. The people who need this food the most are those living in the north.”