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Israel Says 950 Aid Trucks Waiting Inside Gaza for Distribution
(Times of Israel) Emanuel Fabian - A senior Israeli security official on Tuesday blamed UN bodies for not collecting and distributing food and supplies in Gaza. The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said 950 trucks worth of supplies are waiting to be collected by the UN from the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings. "We understand that action is required to stabilize the humanitarian situation," the official said, adding that there may be difficulties with access to food in some areas, an issue that needs to be solved. The official said that COGAT had sat down with UN officials to try and work out the deliveries of the mounting aid that has been allowed into Gaza but not distributed. It was agreed that the UN would distribute 70-80 trucks on Tuesday, but in practice, only 30 were taken in. The UN has requested that Hamas police escort the convoys, something that Israel cannot agree to. The official said Israel can determine that there is no widespread famine in Gaza based on how much aid was reaching Gazans, saying, "We know the calorie value of each truck that enters, and how many people it is enough for." In the past month, an average of 71 trucks entered Gaza each day, COGAT said.