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In Gaza, I’m surrounded by mountains of humanitarian aid. Food, medicine and essential goods all ready to cross the border. The sheer scale is staggering. “Each day from about 300 to 400 trucks are being brought into Gaza,” an Israeli Defence Force (IDF) official told me. “All we want to do is give the food to the people who need it. We have done many, many things to provide safe routes and to provide access to the international organisations.”

The IDF says it has the crossing “open almost the whole day” so the United Nations and other agencies can collect the aid. “We just want to give the food to the people who need it. We want people to have food and we want the food not to reach to Hamas’ hands,” the official explained.

And yet, the goods remain here, untouched. Empty trucks sit waiting to load supplies bound for starving families only a few kilometres away. “All they have to do is just come, pick it up, and give it to the people,” the IDF officer said. When I asked why international groups aren’t collecting it, the response was blunt: “I guess just look around.”

Adding to the absurdity, many of the workers in this Israeli-run distribution centre are Palestinians from Gaza itself. If the food isn’t reaching their neighbours, it’s not because Israel is blocking it. “We do our part. We bring the safe routes. We bring the food. We check the trucks. We coordinate with international organisations,” the official insisted.

Meanwhile, the same international organisations refusing to pick up the aid point the finger at Israel, accusing it of creating the crisis. But the truth is right here in front of me: Hundreds of trucks, loaded with food, waiting for someone to simply take it to the people who desperately need it.

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