Pasta, lentils, sunflower oil, beans, and sugar. Those are just some of the commodities standing on pallets in the baking sun at the Kerem Shalom border crossing inside Gaza, waiting to be picked up by the United Nations. 

Israel estimates that there’s enough aid to fill about 1.000 trucks. The startling contrast between images of starving children in Gaza and aid sitting in this huge parking lot just a few kilometers away is yet another mystery in the Israel-Hamas war. 

So why is the UN not picking up the aid? Israel is putting the blame solely on the UN, with a military official claiming that the UN has a “lack of capacity and manpower” and “a lot of restrictions and regulations” when it comes to picking up and distributing aid from the four different border crossings into Gaza. 

According to the head of the IDF Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, Colonel Abdullah Halabi, Israel increased the number of trucks and extended the operating hours at the border crossings in recent weeks in order to facilitate more aid coming into the Hamas-run enclave.  

“We also coordinated new roads to try to facilitate and help NGOs move the aid to the people of Gaza,” Colonel Halabi told reporters at the Kerem Shalom border crossing.  

According to the UN, though, Israel is to blame for the large amount of aid not getting picked up. “Kerem Shalom is not a McDonald’s drive through where we just pull up and pick up what we’ve ordered, right? There are tremendous bureaucratic impediments. There are tremendous security impediments. And, frankly, I think there’s a lack of willingness to allow us to do our work,” a UN spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, said this week. 

Mr. Dujarric said that to collect aid from the border crossings, the UN drivers need “multiple access approvals, a pause in the bombing, and the iron gates to slide open. And then there are more hurdles in trying to get out of the crossings and find safe roads.”

Colonel Halabi disputes that, insisting that the IDF assesses the roads and provides different access routes for the UN on a weekly basis. While the responsibility of moving aid inside Gaza lies with the humanitarian organisations, the IDF has offered the UN to escort their trucks with humanitarian aid to prevent them from being looted. 

An offer the UN has turned down, despite having to halt distribution of aid temporarily earlier this month after World Food Programme trucks were again looted by Palestinians inside Gaza. 

Instead, the UN has asked Israel to allow its truck drivers to be escorted by “blue police” in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, according to an Israeli military official. 

The New York Sun has reached out to the UN for a response to the claim but has received no answer. 

As Israel and the UN engage in yet another blame game over the deteriorating situation in Gaza, the American-backed NGO, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has repeatedly called on the UN to collaborate on distributing aid. 

“Yesterday, GHF offered to deliver the UN’s stalled aid for free. Again, thus far no one has been able to compel or convince the UN to deliver needed food aid,” the GHF said in a statement on Thursday, referring to the aid piling up at Kerem Shalom border crossing. 

The UN and all other major international NGO’s have refused to work with the GHF, accusing it of lack of experience and neutrality and of endangering civilians who pick up aid at its distribution sites. 

Despite heavy criticism, the GHF has delivered more than 91 million boxes of meals to civilians in Gaza since it began operation in late May. Each box includes enough food for a family of 5.5 for 3.5 days and includes flour, sugar, rice, cooking oil, pasta, tuna or similar protein, often dried beans, and, depending on availability, tea type cookies, coffee and tea, and chocolates.

“The boxes exceed that threshold and are consistent with what other aid groups distribute. Also worth noting is that GHF has distributed aid from other aid organisations. We have also begun distributing potatoes and onions which have been a big hit. We have also been providing potatoes and onions recently which have been a big hit,” the GHF told The New York Sun. 

International NGOs have long accused Israel of blocking aid, but Colonel Halabi says the IDF doesn’t limit the number of trucks with aid entering Gaza. 

So far, he said, more than 4.500 trucks with aid have entered Gaza since May, including 2.500 tons of baby food.

The World Food Programme concluded in its latest monthly report that prices on basic commodities have skyrocketed inside Gaza. 

One kilogram of wheat flour is being sold on markets for $25-30, while a kilogram of sugar can cost up to $83. 

Since the bickering over aid began earlier this week Israel said that the UN has increased the collection of aid in recent days. 

“Today too, the UN and international organizations collected from the crossings and distributed in Gaza about 120 trucks of aid. What happened all of a sudden? When publicly accused, they spring into action? When there is determination, success follows?” the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said on Thursday.