UN claims no actual increase in aid entering Strip

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees is disputing claims by Israel and the US that aid into Gaza has been significantly increased.

“There has been no significant change in the volume of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza or improved access to the north,” UNRWA says in its daily situation report.

Red Crescent officials in Egypt say more than 350 trucks had crossed from there into Gaza on Monday and 258 on Sunday. That was much more than in recent weeks, when the number was usually fewer than 200, they said.

However, UNRWA, the main United Nations agency in Gaza, says 223 trucks had entered on Monday, fewer than half the 500 trucks it says are required daily.

Israel says 468 aid trucks moved into Gaza on Tuesday, and 419 on Monday. Some trucks went into Gaza via land crossings with Israel.

But the UN claims many of the trucks are only half-full, inflating the Israeli count.

UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke says Israel typically counts the half-filled trucks going through an initial screening process, rather than repacked, full trucks for delivery inside Gaza.

“Trucks that go in, screened by COGAT, are typically only half full. That is a requirement that they have put in place for screening purposes. When we count the trucks on the other side, when they have been reloaded, they are full,” Laerke says.

He claims that Israel is still restricting most trucks from being able to move around.

“When you put up the statistical number of trucks going in and say, ‘Look at all these hundreds of trucks coming in’ and you put it against ‘Look how few trucks have actually moved around with distribution,’ it’s kind of an own goal, isn’t it,” he says.

There is no response from Israeli authorities.