Israel-Palestine Mega Fact Check!

Shortly after October 7^th, Israel entirely closed most of its border crossings into Gaza. Those crossings that remained open began operating fewer days per week than before.

In early May 2024 when the IDF seized the only border crossing to Egypt—the Rafah crossing—the amount of aid entering there almost immediately ceased. Although Egypt had been letting aid through until then, Israel was quick to blame Egypt for blocking the aid.

The net result is that much less aid has been let into Gaza than before. Prior to October 7 ^th , around 500 trucks of aid per day entered Gaza. In the January to May 2024 timeframe, COGAT’s data shows that only 3,447 to 6,588 trucks per month have entered Gaza. This translates to 119 to 220 trucks per day, or 24% to 44% of the amount of aid entering before October 7 ^th .

Aid trucks are sometimes raided even before they reach the Gazan border. Certain Israeli settler groups have admitted that they receive tip-offs from the IDF and Israeli police on their location so that they can intercept them. Videos and witness testimony have shown that IDF soldiers assigned to protect these trucks stand by while the settlers destroy the humanitarian aid packages.

In addition, since October 7^th the list of items restricted from entering Gaza has skyrocketed, and the rationale for restricting these has often been lacking. For example, “In March 2024, CNN reported on the items Israel has been most frequently denying to Gazans, usually on the pretext that these are “dual use” items. CNN lists some of the most common ones: ventilators, oxygen cylinders, anesthetics, water filtration systems, X-ray machines and crutches.”

“Other articles that Israel has denied include “dates, sleeping bags, medicines to treat cancer, water purification tablets and maternity kits”, according to the report. Dates could be a lifeline to a starving a population, but they were blocked from entering Gaza because, sources told CNN, the seeds made dates look suspicious in X-ray inspection images. Sleeping bags were denied “because they were the color green”, a humanitarian official told CNN, “and green means military and according to the 2008 list, military is dual use”.’

Meanwhile, Israeli truck inspectors reject entire trucks of aid if even a single unapproved item is found, instead of rejecting solely the unapproved items. Precisely which items aren’t approved of is difficult to predict: “toys were rejected because they were in a wooden box rather than a cardboard box, sleeping bags were denied because they had zippers, and sanitary pads were turned back because a nail clipper was included in the hygiene kit. … In no rational world could (these) be deemed dual use or any kind of military threat.” The inspectors also sometimes reject trucks containing solely approved items without stating a reason.

As observed Save the Children US president Janti Soeripto , who visited the Rafah border crossing to witness the inspection process before it was shut down: “The level of barriers being put in place to hamper humanitarian assistance; we’ve never seen anything like it.”