Nearly 100 aid trucks enter Gaza days after Netanyahu vowed minimal flow of goods

The UN complained that Israeli constraints meant it could not even distribute the initial nine truckloads of aid allowed in on Monday.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israel allowed almost 100 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after thoroughly examining the contents to ensure that they consisted only of food and medicine.

“Following the IDF’s recommendation, and in accordance with the directives of the political echelon, 93 United Nations trucks containing humanitarian aid, including flour, baby food, medical equipment and medicines, were transferred today (Tuesday) through the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Gaza Strip,” the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Maj. Gen. Ghasan Alyan, announced.

“The IDF will facilitate a humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip while making every effort to ensure that the humanitarian aid does not reach the Hamas terrorist organization,” he added.

International pressure on Israel to reverse its 11-week-old policy of blocking aid to pressure Hamas to release the 58 hostages it has held since its October 7, 2023 invasion and massacre, has recently soared, with Western governments, including the US, accepting the terrorists’ and UN claims that Gazans are currently facing starvation.

While Israel acknowledges that there are food shortages in enemy territory, many sources dispute the degree of its severity, noting that Hamas stole most of the international aid delivered over the past year and a half and demands exorbitant fees to release it to ordinary citizens.

On Monday, when the initial nine trucks of aid crossed into Gaza, Alyan had conceded that it wouldn’t be possible to absolutely guarantee that Hamas wouldn’t steal it.

The ten-fold increase in the flow of aid into Gaza on Tuesday appeared to contradict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments earlier this week in which he insisted a tightly limited amount of food would be permitted into the coastal enclave.

“Israel will allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population,” Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday.

Right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who voted for renewing aid in the security cabinet because of the outside pressure, had declared that “No aid is reaching Hamas. Anyone who says differently is simply lying.”

The UN meanwhile complained about Israeli constraints preventing its people from distributing the aid.

“Israeli authorities are requiring us to offload supplies on the Palestinian side [of Kerem Shalom] and reload them separately once they secure our team’s access from inside the Gaza Strip,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Because this took “several hours,” the UN team “was unable to bring these supplies to our warehouses and delivery points,” he said.

Many members of the Israeli government, those living in the Gaza envelope, families of hostages and of serving soldiers, were outraged at the renewal of the aid flow, especially considering that the terrorists have consistently starved their Israeli and foreign captives, with those released to date showing clear signs of severe malnourishment.

“The shameful decision to send humanitarian aid to Hamas is a disgrace to the government and its leader,” said representatives of those living on the border with Gaza.

“Our forces are endangering themselves, our children live in fear, the kidnapped don’t see the light of day, but Hamas will continue to receive oxygen and grow stronger under the auspices of the State of Israel,” they charged.