COGAT complains that UN not including non-UN aid in its tracker of trucks entering Gaza

Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) accuses the United Nations of providing misleading data on the number of humanitarian aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip.

The accusation is based on the fact that a UN online dashboard documenting aid deliveries in Gaza only includes those that the UN is involved in, and not deliveries conducted independent of the UN, including the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — which runs aid distribution sites in Gaza — airdrops by various nations, and the private sector in Gaza.

It’s unclear why COGAT expects the UN to have data on the whereabouts of aid from unaffiliated organizations once it enters Gaza.

The UN dashboard even specifies that the “data presented on this dashboard include only humanitarian relief consignments processed through the UN2720 Mechanism,” referring to a delivery mechanism led by the UN, which not all aid groups are registered with.

COGAT, the Defense Ministry body that coordinates humanitarian matters in the Gaza Strip, says it conducted a “comprehensive review” that exposes a “dramatic gap between the actual number of aid trucks entering Gaza and the figures presented by the UN.”

“Since May, according to UN data, only 3,553 trucks entered the Gaza Strip. In reality, Israel allowed the entry of nearly 9,200 trucks. This represents a gap of almost 6,000 trucks – 2.5 times the volume of aid that the UN claims actually entered,” COGAT says.

“The fact that the UN presents only part of the aid actually transferred misleads the international community and creates a false picture of the situation, directly influencing global media coverage and shaping the positions of international decision-makers regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza,” COGAT charges, despite the UN dashboard specifying that it does not record all aid deliveries.

COGAT claims the UN dashboard “purports to present a full picture of all humanitarian aid, but in practice it includes only the trucks facilitated by UN agencies and a small number of aid organizations working with them.”

“The dashboard fails to include aid delivered by other actors in the humanitarian system, including various states, additional international organizations, the private sector, airdrops, and the distribution centers of the American company,” COGAT says.

COGAT runs its own dashboard, which it says “provides a daily breakdown of the number of trucks entering Gaza, categorized by crossing point and type of goods.”

“The data presented on the site reflects the full and accurate picture of the aid that Israel allows into the Gaza Strip,” it adds.

However, COGAT’s data too is incomplete as it only tracks aid once it is offloaded from Gaza terminals, with limited data on its delivery within the Strip.