Israel Says It's the UN That Is Failing to Deliver Aid to Gaza

A senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) official has accused the United Nations and other international organizations of failing to live up to their commitments to deliver humanitarian assistance as Israel comes under mounting scrutiny over the deteriorating conditions in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

Speaking to reporters on a press call Tuesday, Colonel Moshe Tetro, head of the IDF's Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, asserted that "there are goods of more than 450 trucks" on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza, and they are "waiting for the international community organizations to take the goods to be distributed inside Gaza."

"We are ready and willing to facilitate the entrance of tens, if not hundreds, of trucks every day, but the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom is fully loaded," Tetro said. "Unfortunately, today and yesterday, the U.N. didn't show up to work."

He argued that "the bottleneck is not the Israeli side," and that, "if there will be efficient work by the international community that are working inside Gaza, I think the distribution will be much better."

Reached for comment, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) spokesperson Eri Kaneko told Newsweek that "the UN and our humanitarian partners have not been able to regularly pick up supplies from the crossing points due to safety concerns and a breakdown of law and order."

"Despite this, our colleagues have been taking significant risks to sustain the delivery of humanitarian supplies essential to the survival of civilians," Kaneko said. "We continue to engage to resolve these issues. The IDF has a responsibility to facilitate humanitarian operations within Gaza. Aid piling up at the crossing is evidence of an absence of this enabling environment amidst enormous needs."

The comments came one day after the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for the Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) warned in a report that "the number of trucks entering Gaza remains well below the target of 500 per day, with significant difficulties in bringing supplies in through both Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) and Rafah."

The two crossings have become lifelines as roughly half of Gaza's 2.2 million people are estimated to have fled to southern Gaza amid the ongoing war between the IDF and the Palestinian Hamas movement. With the conflict now escalating in the south of the densely populated territory, a growing chorus of international voices have called for a ceasefire and the expansion of assistance.

Such measures were part of a resolution put to vote Tuesday at the U.N. Security Council. However, the motion failed to pass, as the U.S. exercised its veto power as a permanent member of the council. Of the other 14 nations in the room, 13 supported the resolution, while the United Kingdom abstained.

Washington has argued that the best option to address the conflict and the humanitarian crisis surrounding it was to secure a temporary ceasefire deal that would allow for the release of captives held by Hamas as well as greater humanitarian aid into Gaza. Talks, hosted in Egypt and mediated by Qatar, have reportedly stalled, however, as Israel and Hamas have failed to reach consensus on the framework of such an agreement.

Meanwhile, faced with questions regarding the IDF's responsibility to facilitate both the entry and distribution of sufficient humanitarian assistance in Gaza amid ongoing hostilities, Tetro was adamant that the IDF was living up to its duties. He also shifted the blame to Hamas for beginning the conflict in the first place with its October 7 surprise attack on Israel and compared the movement to the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).

"There are a lot of stakeholders and organizations that have responsibility," Tetro said in response to a question from Newsweek. "The first one that is responsible about the situation in Gaza is ISIS-Hamas and we should not forget it. They took a decision to launch a terrorist brutal attack against the State of Israel and they are the first one to be accountable and responsible over the situation in Gaza."

"The IDF does everything in our power to facilitate the entrance of humanitarian aid and to facilitate the conditions that this humanitarian aid will reach the people in Gaza," he added. "We are not doing that alone and there are a lot of other organizations that relevant to this issue."

Specifically, he mentioned the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross, along with other non-governmental organizations and Palestinians inside Gaza.

Tetro also held the World Health Organization (WHO) responsible for shortcomings on deliveries of badly needed resources to Gaza. Amid IDF operations at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis that has raised controversy, Tetro acknowledged that "there was a problem with the power" at the medical facility on Friday but argued that the IDF was not at fault.

"A WHO convoy was scheduled to deliver fuel to the hospital," Tetro said. "Their convoy was stopped on the way, and they decided to return the next day even though we offered them assistance so they can come on the same day."

"To be clear, it was the team's decision to return on Saturday. We didn't deny them access on Friday," he added. "On the contrary, we helped them when the truck got stuck, but as I mentioned they decided not to wait and return the next day on Saturday."

That same day, according to Tetro, "a technician came to the compound and confirmed that the issue was not with the generators but with some other electrical infrastructure of the hospital, damage was that was not related to the operation."

Newsweek has reached out to the WHO for comment.

Tetro also dismissed reports of patients having died in the Nasser Hospital's ICU as a result of supplies shortage or lack of electricity as "a pure lie" as "not even for one second the vital equipment failed." He acknowledged that two patients had passed away but "not because of any failure of the medical equipment, not because they didn't have access to medical team and not because of anything regarding to our operation."

"In Nasser Hospital before the war," Tetro said, "isn't it fair to say that maybe two people [would] have died during a normal weekend in the hospital?"

The IDF's storming of Nasser Hospital has been a key talking point for Hamas, which has accused Israeli forces of deliberately targeting civilian sites, including medical facilities. In a statement issued Tuesday, the group warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against pressing forward with operations in southern Gaza or adopting any new restrictions against Muslims as the Islamic holy month of Ramadan approaches.

"We warn the occupation against any escapade of storming Rafah and committing massacres and genocidal war," the Hamas statement read. "The victory that Netanyahu is looking for is a mirage and does not exist except in his imagination."

"Netanyahu lies to everyone and deceives the families of the prisoners by claiming that they can be liberated by force, and time is running out," the group added. "The explosion is coming in the face of the occupation in response to any restrictions on Muslims entering Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan."

Update 2/20/24, 5:35 p.m. ET: This article was updated to include comments by a spokesperson for OCHA.