Why Is So Little Aid Getting Into Gaza?

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Aid to Gaza since the ceasefire two months ago has increased but is still far from enough, say UN organisations and NGOs. On January 1, Israel banned 37 humanitarian agencies from operating in Gaza. This content was published on January 7, 2026 - 09:00 7 minutes Meret Michel

• العربية ar ما الذي يعيق تدفّق قدر كاف من المساعدات الإنسانية إلى غزة؟ Read more: ما الذي يعيق تدفّق قدر كاف من المساعدات الإنسانية إلى

What was planned in the ceasefire agreement and how much aid is getting in?

Israel committed to allowing 600 trucks per day into Gaza – the same number that reached the territory daily during the previous ceasefire last January. UN organisations and NGOs say aid has increased but is still trickling in.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the British broadcaster BBC at the end of October that the average number of trucks entering Gaza daily was between 200 and 300. In the first week of December, an average of 140 aid trucks per day from UN convoys crossed the border into Gaza, say UN organisations.

The UN-supported IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification), a global hunger monitor, said in December that the famine declared in August in Gaza has now ended, but aid organisations say malnutrition is still widespread, as are health complications from undernourishment.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), only 65% of Gaza's population received food assistance in November.

The UN Children's Fund UNICEF reported that two-thirds of children under the age of five ate food from only one or two of the eight recommended food groups in October, mainly grains, bread, or flour.

Combined with limited health services, inadequate water supplies, and poor sanitation, UNICEF says that all 320,000 children under the age of five in the area are still at risk of acute malnutrition.

COGAT, the Israeli military body which controls Gaza's border crossings, has dismissed claims of deliberate aid restrictions as“inconsistent with facts on the ground, and the ongoing co-ordination taking place daily”. It says that between 600 and 800 lorries carrying humanitarian supplies enter Gaza daily.

On January 1, Israel said 37 humanitarian agencies supplying aid in Gaza had not met a deadline to meet“security and transparency standards”, and would be banned from the territory.

The international NGOs, which had been ordered to disclose detailed information on their Palestinian staff, will now be required to cease operations by March 1.

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