From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Israel halts processing of commercial food imports to Gaza, sources say
Israel has stopped processing requests from traders to import food to Gaza, according to 12 people involved in the trade, choking off a track that for the past six months supplied more than half of the besieged Palestinian territory’s provisions.
Since October 11, Gaza-based traders who were importing food from Israel and the West Bank have lost access to a system introduced in spring by COGAT, the Defense Ministry body that oversees aid and commercial shipments, and have received no reply to attempts to contact the agency, the sources say.
The shift has driven the flow of goods arriving in Gaza to its lowest level since the start of the war, a Reuters analysis of official Israeli data shows. The details of the halt in commercial goods into Gaza have not been previously reported.
COGAT did not respond to Reuters’ questions about commercial food imports and aid to Gaza. The agency says it does all it can to ensure that enough aid enters the coastal enclave and that Israel does not prevent the entry of humanitarian aid. It rejects allegations Israel has blocked supplies.
Between October 1 and October 16, the overall flow of shipments to Gaza — including both aid and commercial goods — fell to a daily average of 29 trucks, according to COGAT statistics.
That compares with a daily average of 175 trucks between May and September, the data shows. Commercial shipments — goods bought by local traders, trucked in after direct approval by COGAT, and then sold in marketplaces in Gaza — accounted for about 55% of the total during that period.
Two sources involved in food supply say the reason for halting commercial shipments was because Israel worried that the Hamas terror group was receiving revenues from the imports.
A Hamas spokesperson denies that the group had stolen food or used it for revenue and said it was trying to ensure the distribution of aid in Gaza.
The commercial system’s apparent closure came as Israel launched a new military operation against Hamas in northern Gaza, a parallel development that has obstructed humanitarian aid deliveries. The UN’s World Food Programme said in a statement on Sunday the operation cut off all aid deliveries through crossings in the north for at least two weeks this month.
Plummeting volumes of aid into Gaza have prompted the United States to threaten to withhold military support to Israel.
Following international criticism, COGAT said in statements this week that Israel had allowed scores of trucks of aid into Gaza, including dozens via crossings in the north. It did not provide full details or respond to Reuters’ requests for information for this story.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
