Aid flow into Gaza falls short of the terms of the ceasefire deal, Israeli figures show

JERUSALEM (AP) – Aid deliveries into Gaza are falling far short of the amount called for under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, according to an Associated Press analysis of the Israeli military’s figures as humanitarian groups say the shortfall is severely impacting the strip’s 2 million people.

Under the October ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Israel agreed to allow 600 trucks of aid into Gaza.

However, only an average of around 459 trucks a day have entered the Gaza Strip between Oct. 12, when the flow of the aid restarted, and Sunday, according to an AP analysis of latest figures by COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid entry.

COGAT said that roughly 18,000 trucks of food aid had entered Gaza from when the ceasefire took effect until Sunday, amounting to 70% of all aid that had entered the territory since the truce.

This means that COGAT estimates that including the rest of the aid – items that are not food, such as tents and medicines – a total of just over 25,700 trucks have entered Gaza. That is well under the 33,600 trucks that should have gone in under the terms of the ceasefire.

In response to the AP analysis, COGAT insisted Wednesday the number of trucks entering Gaza each day was above the 600 mark but refused to elaborate why the figures don’t match or provide raw data on truck entry.

COGAT had given daily figures of trucks entering Gaza during the war but stopped doing so when the ceasefire began. Rights groups say that is because it controls the crossings and has sole access to track how much aid and commercial goods are entering Gaza.

The United Nations and aid groups have often said the amount of aid entering Gaza is far lower than COGAT claims.

The U.N. says only 6,545 trucks have been offloaded at Gaza crossings between the ceasefire and Dec. 7, amounting to about 113 trucks a day. That’s according to its online database. The U.N. figures do not include aid trucks sent by organizations not working through the U.N. network.

A Hamas document on Saturday provided to the AP put the amount of total aid trucks that have entered since the truce at 7,333.

This week, the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs, known as OCHA, stressed a “dire” need for more aid for Gaza, saying Israeli restrictions on aid have bottlenecked recovery efforts.

Humanitarian groups say lack of aid has had harsh effects on much of Gaza’s residents, most of whom were forcibly displaced by war. Food remains scarce as the Palestinian territory struggles to bounce back from famine, which hit parts of Gaza during the war.

Starving mothers in Gaza are giving birth to malnourished babies, some of whom have died in hospital, according to a recent report by UNICEF. As winter rains pick up, displaced families living in tents have been left exposed to the elements and without supplies to cope with floods and the biting cold.

“Needs far outpace the humanitarian community’s ability to respond, given persistent impediments,” a UNICEF report said on Monday. “These obstacles include insecurity, customs clearance challenges, delays and denials of cargo at the crossings, and limited routes available for transporting humanitarian supplies within Gaza.”

Israel temporarily stopped all aid entry at least once in response to alleged Hamas violations of the truce. Israel said that Hamas has failed to return the bodies of the hostages in the time period established by the ceasefire, while Hamas has said it struggled to find the bodies due to the destruction left by Israel in the Palestinian territory.

Hamas has also accused Israel of violating the ceasefire terms because of the slow flow of aid, continued closure of the Rafah crossing and ongoing deadly strikes on Gaza.

Israel is demanding the return of the remains of the final hostage, Ran Gvili, from Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that Gvili’s remains must be returned, a condition of the first phase of the ceasefire. “Once phase one is completed, phase two will begin,” it said.

Hamas militants and Red Cross crews continued to comb the ruins of Gaza City for the final body this week, while the militant group Islamic Jihad claimed it had handed over the last hostage body in its possession.

On Tuesday, Hamas called for more international pressure on Israel to open key border crossings, cease deadly strikes on the territory and allow more aid into the strip.

Regional leaders have said time is critical for the ceasefire agreement as mediators seek to push the truce into its second, more complicated phase.

The director of Shifa hospital in Gaza, Mohamed Abu Selmiya, said the hospital on Wednesday received the body of a 17-year-old Palestinian boy who had been run over and crushed to death by an Israeli tank in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

It was not clear when the death happened. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to an AP inquiry into the circumstances of the teen’s death.

___

Associated Press writers Megan Janetsky in Jerusalem and Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.