Israeli officers admit spoiling aid from 1,000 trucks at southern Gaza’s Kerem Shalom crossing
Israeli officers have admitted Friday to spoiling food, water and medical supplies that were packed in more than 1,000 aid trucks at the Kerem Shalom crossing that were left to rot after their distribution into the Gaza Strip was blocked, Anadolu reports.
According to the Israeli public broadcaster KAN, the aid trucks were carrying tens of thousands of humanitarian parcels. They had been left for weeks under the sun at the crossing without being distributed, until they spoiled.
The Gaza Ministry of Health announced Friday that the death toll from hunger and malnutrition since October 2023 has reached 122 Palestinians, including 83 children.
One Israeli officer told KAN: “We buried everything in the ground, and some of the supplies we burned,” without specifying the timing of the incident.
He added: “Even now, thousands of parcels are sitting in the sun. If they’re not allowed into Gaza, we’ll have to destroy them too.”
Military sources told KAN that “only 100 to 150 trucks are allowed to enter the Palestinian side of the crossing per day, and most of them are not unloaded due to the breakdown of the distribution mechanism.”
Another Israeli officer said: “The mechanism isn’t functioning. Trucks are halted, the roads are unusable, and coordination isn’t happening.”
He added: “We have here the largest grain storage in the world, and if the current goods aren’t taken soon, we will destroy and bury them.”
Famine has worsened dramatically inside Gaza. Circulating images and videos show Palestinians whose bodies appear skeletal due to extreme starvation, in addition to suffering from nausea, exhaustion and loss of consciousness.
On Tuesday, the World Food Program warned that one-third of Gaza’s population had gone several days without eating due to the continued Israeli blockade.
Since March 2, Israel has backtracked on implementing a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal with Hamas and has kept Gaza’s crossings shut, leaving hundreds of aid trucks stranded at the borders.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 59,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Deaths by starvation have climbed in recent days due to a months-long blockade and poor distribution of aid by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
READ: BBC, Reuters, AP and AFP warn Gaza journalists now face starvation