COGAT: Israel can send hundreds of aid trucks to Gaza, but agencies are stranded

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Israel is working to allow more Humanitarian aid to the Gaza StripBut the amount of aid is limited by the capacity of the various aid agencies responsible for collecting and distributing it, Col. Elad Goren, head of the civilian division of COGAT, Israel’s coordinator of activities in the territories, said Thursday at a news conference at Israel’s government media headquarters in Tel Aviv.

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“We are working side by side with the international community to raise this level,” Goren said.

Goren said up to 250 trucks a day would be allowed to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing after passing Israeli inspections in Nizana. Kerem Shalom Border Crossing It will reopen in the “coming days” to allow more trucks in. However, he said inspections and border crossings were not the problem.

“The problem is not Nitzana; United Nations Agencies Gather all the aid,” he said.

A truck loaded with humanitarian aid for Palestinians is seen backing up from the other side as a panoramic view of the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Rafah, Egypt, November 12, 2023. (Source: Reuters/Hader Mahmoud)

Resolving the situation in Gaza

Goren said the Gaza Coordination Office coordinates closely with the United States, Egypt and the United Nations, and conducts daily assessments with agencies such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the Red Cross to “understand the real situation in Gaza.”

He said about 16,000 tons of aid had arrived in Gaza so far and six new warehouses had been set up in Rafah to store the supplies. He also said Israel had provided about 28 million liters of fresh water to “people who are not involved in terrorist activities.”

“We are continuing to improve methods and technologies for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza,” he said.

“We want to have all the necessary information to meet the needs of the population. We want the international community to step up its support. It’s a matter of logistics.”

Goren also said that Gaza residents have been asked to move to a safe zone west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, where fighting is currently taking place.

“I’m sure you understand the risk we took in announcing a safe zone,” he said. “We want to make sure people can get to the safe zone and that aid will get there.”

He also said a “comprehensive mechanism” had been established to ensure that fuel and other aid supplies could reach civilians in a timely manner and were not taken away by Hamas.

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