15 aid organizations demand international pressure for an immediate ceasefire, arms embargo, and end to Israel’s systematic aid obstructionNew data has revealed the scale of aid obstruction, and the consequential drastic fall in aid entering Gaza. This is driving a humanitarian disaster, with the entire population of Gaza facing hunger and disease, and almost half a million at risk of starvation.While Israeli military attacks on Gaza intensify, lifesaving food, medicine, medical supplies, fuel, and tents have been systematically blocked from entering for almost a year.Data analysis by organizations working in Gaza has found that as a consequence of the Israeli government's obstruction of aid:- 83% of required food aid does not make it into Gaza, up from 34% in 2023.This reduction means people in Gaza have gone from having an average of two meals a day to just one meal every other day. An estimated 50,000 children aged between 6-59 months urgently require treatment for malnutrition by the end of the year.
Look carefully at the wording. It is not saying that food is not making it into Gaza, but "food aid."
Because Israel has made up for the difference by encouraging commercial food and supply deliveries.
This has advantages - the private drivers are more likely to go into somewhat dangerous areas that the professional aid workers refuse to enter, and commercial deliveries are less likely to be intercepted by Hamas which still essentially controls all the aid coming in to Gaza. And then Hamas sells the aid meant to be free to Gazans. So in the end, the aid that goes through humanitarian organizations are not any easier for Gazans to access than the commercial goods.
The NGOs know this. The press release includes a link to the UN-OCHA statistics, which mentions that they are not counting commercial goods in very tiny letters:
%20-%20United%20N_%20-%20www.ochaopt.org.png)
But when you look at the COGAT reports, you see that there is more food coming in on commercial trucks than aid trucks:
But speaking of liars, last week EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell claimed:
I learned that the energy bars - which is the best way of feeding, the less weight and the less volume for the same amount of calories – have been rejected at the border, because they [Israel]consider that it is a luxury product. We will see the item that has been rejected and they are still being rejected.
The COGAT site mentions specifically that "high energy biscuits" are part of the "other" category of food items entering Gaza:
Borrell may have been mislead by whoever he heard this from, but he should still tell the truth.
The people making official statements to the media about Israel are knowingly deceptive. And no one calls them out on it.
