Israel: UN hasn’t yet taken ‘full advantage’ of new aid route into Gaza

Israel says the United Nations is yet to “take full advantage” of a new route meant to ease the flow of aid into the Gaza Strip.
The military yesterday announced a “tactical pause” in daytime fighting along roads leading from a main goods crossing to a north-south highway. The route is meant to help address a backlog of aid waiting for pickup on the Gazan side of the crossing.
“We have not seen the UN take full advantage of this step,” says Shimon Freedman, a spokesman for COGAT, an Israeli defense body that oversees aid distribution in Gaza. Freedman makes the remarks at a briefing for reporters at the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, said workers on the ground were unable to use the route yesterday, blaming a breakdown in law and order in the territory.
At the Israeli briefing, officials do not say how many trucks have made use of the route.
Freedman says the route will have military presence and Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari has said Israel will “make sure the road is safe.”
Israeli authorities have continually said the lack of aid reaching desperate Palestinians in Gaza is due to the failure of the UN to distribute supplies within the war-stricken territory. Meanwhile, the UN has claimed Israel is enforcing unnecessary and drawn-out inspection procedures at the crossing, and that fighting in Gaza, along with violence and truck looting, has hampered their distribution efforts.
Freedman says there are more than 1,000 trucks on the Gaza side of the crossing waiting to be picked up for delivery.