Gaza aid deliveries dropped to lowest monthly level of 2024 in October

Trucks with humanitarian aid at the Erez border crossing, late October 2024

Bar Peleg reports in Haaretz on 31 October 2024:

The amount of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip in October was the lowest of any month this year, according to data from Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. The data from COGAT, which oversees shipments into Gaza, measures the amount of aid through October 28.

Last week, the Israeli government acknowledged to the High Court of Justice that the number of trucks delivering aid began to drop on October 2, the eve of the Rosh Hashanah holiday. Besides the Jewish holidays in October, the drop was attributed to intelligence about possible terrorist attacks surrounding the first anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack and “various operational needs” stemming from Israeli operations in the Jabalya refugee camp north of Gaza City. However, COGAT officials say the main cause of the decline was a reduction in international aid and not any limitation imposed by Israel.

They also say that hundreds of trucks loaded with equipment have been waiting at the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing and are not being collected for distribution. They added that several border crossings were closed during the Jewish holidays based on the assessment that there were sufficient stockpiles of aid in northern Gaza that arrived before October.

COGAT data compiled by the Tamrur-Politography research group shows that between the beginning of October and nearly the end of the month, 26,399 tons of assistance entered Gaza, compared to 87,445 tons in September, almost all of which entered by land. By comparison, the monthly average figure this year has been 95,513.

The assistance in October included 19,855 tons of food, 3,810 tons of equipment for the construction of shelters, 1,244 tons of fuel, 635 tons of medical equipment, 260 tons of water and several dozen tons of general equipment. The drop was reflected in every category of assistance other than fuel, the amount of which increased somewhat from September.

A total of 859 truckloads of food entered Gaza in October, compared to a monthly average of 3,591 truckloads so far this year. During each of the months of July, August and September, the private sector provided more than 50,000 tons of aid, a figure that dropped to just 2,160 tons in October.

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