Israel blames UN again as it reports limited aid pick-up
The Israeli military’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is in charge of managing aid intended to reach Gaza, claims about 90 food trucks were unloaded at aid crossings on Friday.
It said in a short report that more than 100 trucks of aid were loaded by the UN and international organisations from the Gaza side and distributed.
But the military entity again blamed the UN and others for the hundreds of other trucks filled with aid which are waiting at the border, claiming that “we continue to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid.”
COGAT also released a few images of a World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity food distribution site in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah as proof that aid is getting to Palestinians and that the UN is responsible for any shortcomings.
The WCK said on Friday that after a five-day halt due to the Israeli blockade, its kitchen in Deir el-Balah resumed “limited hot meal service” in Gaza.
The UN has repeatedly pushed back against Israeli claims of blame, pointing to Israel’s well-documented restrictions on aid and staff movement that have left Gaza’s entire population facing the risk of starvation.
UNRWA chief says aid airdrops a dangerous distraction, could kill hungry Palestinians
Philippe Lazzarini says proposed airdrops of aid would be an expensive, inefficient “distraction” that could kill starving Palestinians.
Israel said on Friday that it will allow airdrops of food and supplies from foreign countries into Gaza in the coming days in response to critical food shortages caused by its blockade.
But in a social media post, Lazzarini said the airdrops would “not reverse the deepening starvation” and called instead for Israel to “lift the siege, open the gates [and] guarantee safe movements [and] dignified access to people in need”.
Airdrops, he said, are “expensive, inefficient [and] can even kill starving civilians”. “A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will,” he said, calling on Israel to allow the UN and its partners to operate at scale in Gaza “without bureaucratic or political hurdles”.
He said UNRWA has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks in Jordan and Egypt “waiting for the green light to get into Gaza”. “Driving aid through is much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper and safer” than airdrops, he said, adding that it is also more dignified for the people of Gaza.
#Gaza: airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians.
It is a distraction & screensmoke.
A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will.
Lift the siege, open the gates & guarantee safe movements…
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 26, 2025
‘Appalling malnutrition in babies, children and adults’: Doctor
Nick Maynard, a British surgeon who has worked in Gaza, says he witnessed Palestinian babies and children dying of malnutrition at Nasser Hospital in the south of the enclave.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Oxford in the UK, Maynard said his medical colleagues had baby formula taken away from them by the Israeli authorities when they tried to bring it into the Strip.
“The formula feed that’s required for newborns and for infants was in extremely short supply,” he said.
“No formula feed had been delivered to Nasser Hospital for many months and indeed, doctors I knew from America who had specifically brought in formula feed to Gaza because they knew there was such a shortage had their cartons confiscated by the Israeli border guards,” Maynard explained.
“It’s unfathomable why they would do that, but it’s certainly not an isolated incident. I heard it from many people that they had formula feed confiscated so I don’t think it was isolated. I think there was a very deliberate intention to not allow any of that feed into Gaza. But why? One can only speculate.”
