Israeli liaison declines to respond to UN claim that it can’t pick up and distribute aid sent to Gaza
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Israel’s COGAT agency, which coordinates the supply of humanitarian aid into Gaza, has declined to respond to claims by the UN that its teams have been unable to pick up and distribute aid brought yesterday into the territory through the Kerem Shalom goods crossing.
Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN secretary-general, said yesterday that a UN team “waited several hours for Israeli green light to access Kerem Shalom area” to pick up the supplies that were brought in, but said that ultimately they had not been able to do so.
COGAT said last night that 93 UN trucks carrying “flour for bakeries, food for babies, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical drugs” were “transferred via the Kerem Shalom Crossing into the Gaza Strip,” but refused to comment on the issue of approval for picking up and distribution.
UN agencies and humanitarian organizations have said that “acute hunger,” displacement caused by Israel’s renewed military campaign, and “extreme levels of deprivation” in Gaza mean that the civilian population is in desperate need of large volumes of aid to avoid a humanitarian disaster.
Israel blocked the entry of all aid to Gaza on March 2. That blockade was lifted on Monday following heavy international pressure.
Before the ceasefire that went into effect on January 19, COGAT and the UN were in an ongoing dispute about who was to blame for aid distribution difficulties.
The UN claimed that COGAT and the IDF frequently refused their requests for collection and distribution authorization, and that dangerous and complex conditions inside Gaza made aid distribution very difficult.
COGAT claimed, however, that the number of times it had denied authorization was extremely low, and presented figures to the High Court of Justice to that effect. It also claimed that the UN was inefficient in delivering the aid, and pointed out that large quantities of aid had accumulated on the Gazan side of Kerem Shalom.
The Times of Israel Community.