Israel has stopped processing requests from traders to import food to Gaza.
Since Oct. 11, Gaza-based traders who were importing food from Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank have lost access to a system introduced in spring by Cogat, the Israeli government body that oversees aid and commercial shipments.
According to a review of official Israeli data, the change has resulted in the lowest level of supplies entering in Gaza since the beginning of the war.
The specifics of the stop of commercial items entering Gaza have not before been published, according to reports.
Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 16, the overall flow of shipments to Gaza – including both aid and commercial goods – fell to a daily average of 29 trucks, according to Cogat statistics. That compares with a daily average of 175 trucks between May and September, the data shows.
Commercial shipments — goods bought by local traders, trucked in after direct approval by Cogat, and then sold in marketplaces in Gaza — accounted for about 55% of the total during that period
Two sources involved in food supply said the reason for halting commercial shipments was because Israel worried that the Hamas militant group was receiving revenues from the imports.
The commercial system’s apparent closure came as Israel launched a new military operation against Hamas in northern Gaza, a parallel development that has obstructed humanitarian aid deliveries.
The U.N.’s World Food Programme said in a statement that on Sunday, the operation cut off all aid deliveries through crossings in the north for at least two weeks this month.
Plummeting volumes of aid into Gaza has prompted the United States to threaten to withhold military support to Israel.
A series of measures by Israeli government departments and the military were already reducing food deliveries to Gaza. In August, Israeli authorities introduced a new customs rule on one aid channel and began scaling down the separate track of commercial goods.
Getting enough food to Gaza’s 2.3 million people, almost all of whom have been displaced, has been one of the most fraught issues of the war. Aid agencies have renewed their warnings of widening malnutrition and the danger of famine.
