But in the six months since the start of the war, Israeli authorities have also denied or restricted access to a number of items, ranging from lifesaving medical supplies to toys to chocolate croissants.
“I think it’s unprecedented,” Shaina Low, a spokeswoman for the Norwegian Refugee Council in the Palestinian territories, said of the Israeli restrictions. “It’s just nothing that aid agencies have ever had to deal with.”
The blockages and delays, coupled with attacks on aid workers, are costing Palestinian lives, aid groups say — charges Israel denies.
Items rejected from entry into Gaza
The Washington Post reached 25 aid groups, U.N. agencies and donor countries about the kinds of aid they have tried to get into Gaza. Food, water and blankets do not require approvals, but agencies submit requests for items they think have a chance of getting rejected, such as communication equipment and sanitation or shelter items.
Pre-dispatch approvals and border inspections have been inconsistent, they said, with some items rejected in one instance but approved in others. In some cases, organizations were able to get rejections overturned upon appeal. Other requests have remained in limbo. COGAT, the Israeli military agency responsible for coordinating aid inside Gaza, did not respond to requests for comment.
Here is a list of items the United Nations and other aid agencies say Israeli authorities have blocked from entering Gaza at least once since Oct. 7:
- anesthetics
- animal feed
- cardiac catheters
- chemical water quality testing kits
- chocolate croissants
- crutches
- field hospital boxes
- flak jackets and helmets for aid workers
- fittings for water pipeline repair
- generators for hospitals
- green tents and sleeping bags
- maternity kits
- medical thread in reproductive health kits
- medical scissors in children’s aid kits
- microbiological water-testing kits
- mobile desalination units with solar system and generators
- nail clippers in hygiene kits
- obstetric clamps
- oxygen concentrators
- oxygen cylinders
- power supply equipment
- prefabricated shelters
- satellite communication kits
- scissors and scalpels in midwifery kits
- sleeping bags with zippers
- solar panels
- solar-powered lamps and flashlights
- solar-powered medical refrigerators
- spare parts for pumps and generators
- stone fruits
- surgical tools for doctors
- tap-stand kits for water distribution
- tent poles
- toys in wooden boxes
- ultrasound equipment
- ventilators
- water bladders
- water filters and purification tablets
- water pumps
- wheelchairs, glucose measuring devices, syringes and other medical equipment on a truck rejected for a different item
- X-ray machines
Limited scanning machines and operational hours at border inspection sites slow down the delivery of aid, according to Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory.
If one item is rejected during an inspection, he added, the whole truck is sent back. Earlier this year, insulin pens for children were denied entry, McGoldrick said, after a mixed-cargo truck was rejected apparently because of solar panels.
“You’d think after five and a half months of a crisis of this kind, the systems in place would be a bit more predictable and settled. In fact, they are not. And that’s why we’re struggling,” McGoldrick said.
COGAT has in turn accused U.N. agencies for delays in aid delivery. Last month, responding to a video from U.N. Secretary General António Guterres showing miles of stalled trucks at the Rafah border crossing, COGAT said on social media that the United Nations “must scale up logistics and stop blaming Israel for its own failures.”
Overall, the agency says 22,105 trucks were allowed into Gaza between Oct. 7 and Wednesday, an average of about 118 trucks per day — about a fifth of the number that entered prewar. This week, COGAT said Israel was “surging” aid into Gaza, and that more than 1,200 aid trucks had entered Gaza in three days. Between mid-February and mid-March, COGAT says, 19 trucks of medical supplies entered the enclave.
Israel has maintained a land, air and sea blockade on Gaza since 2007. This has included regulating the entry of “dual-use” items into Gaza, those that are predominantly civilian in nature but could also be used militarily, such as construction materials, communications equipment and chemicals. Israel argues these restrictions are necessary to choke off Hamas’s…
Read More: What Gaza humanitarian aid items has Israel rejected during the war?