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Kamala Harris repeats refuted allegation that Israel blocks aid from Gazan civilians

The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) directly challenges the claim that Israel has blocked aid from entering northern Gaza.

By Corey Walker, The Algemeiner

US Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday repeated a claim that the Israeli government has hindered food from entering northern Gaza since the beginning of October, contradicting data compiled by both the Jewish state and humanitarian aid organizations affiliated with the United Nations.

“The UN reports that no food has entered northern Gaza in nearly 2 weeks. Israel must urgently do more to facilitate the flow of aid to those in need. Civilians must be protected and must have access to food, water, and medicine. International humanitarian law must be respected,” Harris posted on X/Twitter.

The Democratic presidential nominee was referring to a recent report produced by the UN World Food Program (WFP) claiming that, due to Israeli military actions, nearly all food distribution points in northern Gaza have been shut down since Oct. 1. The report said that communities in northern Gaza were left with dwindling supplies and on the brink of total starvation.

“WFP distributed its last remaining food stocks in the north to partners and kitchens sheltering newly displaced families, but these are barely enough to last two weeks,” the report read.

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Subsequent media reports said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considering establishing a “closed military zone” in northern Gaza to combat Hamas terrorists. The reported plan would mandate the cessation of aid transfers into the enclosed area in an attempt to starve out Hamas fighters, who according to US and Israeli authorities often steal aid meant for civilians. Israel had ordered the evacuation of civilians from northern Gaza, but many people had not left the designated military zone and would be impacted by the withholding of supplies.

According to Axios, however, Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant told US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in a phone call on Sunday that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was not carrying out the plan to seal off aid to northern Gaza.

Data provided by the UN and the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli government agency coordinating civilian issues in the Palestinian territories, directly challenge the claim that Israel has blocked aid from entering northern Gaza.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that 54 aid trucks entered northern Gaza just from Oct. 8-10 via Gate 96, a recently created route for humanitarian aid to enter the northern part of the Palestinian enclave. Food made up a majority of the supplies. From Oct. 1-Oct. 10, 25 truckloads of aid were received in Gaza through the Erez West crossing into northern Gaza, and most of the trucks contained food.

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According to data compiled by COGAT, 31 aid trucks entered northern Gaza through the Erez West crossing from Oct. 1-Oct. 12.

COGAT also posted a video on X/Twitter on Monday showing a humanitarian aid truck entering northern Gaza.

“30 trucks entered northern Gaza through the Erez Crossing earlier today. Israel is not preventing the entry of humanitarian aid, with an emphasis on food, into Gaza,” COGAT wrote.

“In the last two weeks, the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] has been conducting a ground operation in northern Gaza to destroy Hamas terrorist infrastructure, which just this week launched rockets from northern Gaza towards civilian populations in Israel,” the agency added.

The UN has long been accused by critics of harboring a bias against Israel. In June, the global organization placed Israel on its so-called “list of shame” alongside other “countries that kill children” in armed conflict. The United Nations Human Rights Office also published a report in June claiming that Israel cut off humanitarian assistance to Gaza without noting that Hamas terrorists often attempt to steal and hoard aid or that Israel has allowed large numbers of supply trucks to enter the war-torn enclave. The United Nations’ special rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, has repeatedly circulated an unsubstantiated claim from a medical journal that 186,000 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

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Last year, the UN General Assembly condemned Israel twice as often as it did all other countries combined. Meanwhile, of all the country-specific resolutions passed by the UN Human Rights Council, nearly half have condemned Israel, a seemingly disproportionate focus on the lone democracy in the Middle East.

Harris’s office did not respond to a request for comment by The Algemeiner