Everything You Need to Know About the Humanitarian Aid Situation in Gaza

Statistics - As of August 18, 2025

Despite multiple claims, Israel has indeed been allowing and facilitating the entry of aid into Gaza. Copious amounts of food, medical equipment, sanitary products, and more, have been flowing continuously across the border with over 4,000 tons of baby formula having recently entered Gaza.

Over 1.9 million tons of aid have been delivered since the start of the Swords of Iron war; nearly 100,000 large trucks. Just this week, Israel has overseen 23,000 tons of aid, and 1,200 trucks have entered Gaza.  

Furthermore, Israel, via COGAT, a unit responsible for implementing government policies within certain territories, has coordinated airdrops with international partners, as an additional method of entering aid into Gaza. Packages are airdropped at gathering points, at specific times that Gazan civilians are alerted to.

Preparations for the Airdrop of Humanitarian Aid in the Gaza Strip (August 5, 2025)

Airdrop of Humanitarian Aid as Part of the Efforts To Deliver Aid to the Gaza Strip (August 5, 2025)

Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore, Indonesia, Canada, Spain, Germany, the UAE, Jordan, and Egypt, have all been sending aid packages increasingly over the past few weeks. Countries have delivered by airdropping independently, or via Jordan and Egypt, after which they are collected by Israel and brought across the Kerem Shalom crossing. Today, a total of 7,800 tons of aid have been delivered via the aerial route. 

Preparations for the Airdrop of Humanitarian Aid in the Gaza Strip

Israel has not only been supplying aid, but has also restored infrastructure in Gaza. In coordination with the Israel Electric Corporation, a power line now supplies energy to a desalination plant serving 900,000 Gazans.

On July 30, 2025, in a further effort to ensure Gazans have enough safe drinking water, work began to connect the Emirati water line from the desalination plant in Egypt to the Al-Mawasi area along the coast. Around 600,000 residents of Gaza will be served by this water line. 

The Steps

Once aid from all international sources has been acquired, it is organized onto trucks in Jordan and Egypt. These trucks approach the Kerem Shalom crossing, a border point that connects Egypt, Gaza, and Israel. A border point that was also heavily bombed on October 7, 2023, used as a method of invading Israel by Hamas. 

The trucks are handed over to Israel, and are then submitted through a quick screening process, checking for any product that could be used for terror activity. Thereafter, the aid enters into Gaza, up to 600 meters past the border. 

Aid entering Gaza

At this stage, Israel has completed its part in the humanitarian aid process. It is now the responsibility of international organizations to collect this aid and distribute it. A task in which the UN has unfortunately fallen short of expectations.

Following the delivery across the border, international organizations pick up the aid, and transfer it over to distribution points. The UN has sites surrounding their warehouses, both within and around the humanitarian zone.

Footage of distribution center established in the Tel al-Sultan area

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American organization established in February 2025, has been more successful in their distribution methods recently. 

Distributing Aid

The GHF currently has four distribution centers in Gaza, one in the north, and three in the south. In coordination with the IDF, via COGAT, the GHF announces opening hours at the sites, and the IDF secures the operational conditions for the opening up to two hours prior to distribution.

Infographic of the four distribution sites across Gaza

These centers are open most days of the week, and are overseen by security teams employed by the GHF, who ensure the aid goes directly to the civilians in Gaza. Despite Hamas attempts to disrupt these efforts and prevent Gazan civilians from obtaining the aid, the GHF has successfully managed to distribute millions of meals over the last few months.

In February 2024, during an attempt to attack a truck carrying humanitarian aid, dozens of civilians died from overcrowding and trampling in northern Gaza. When thousands of people rush towards aid trucks, stampedes and chaos can occur. 

The IDF is familiar with videos circulating online presenting allegations of Gazan civilians being harmed while attempting to reach the distribution centers. The IDF takes these allegations very seriously - we follow international law and go by our values, specifically “purity of arms”.

While initial examinations reveal that allegations are completely fake or tend to inflate the figures of purported casualties, the IDF has subjected the allegations to an investigation by the Fact-Finding & Assessment Mechanism that is responsible for examining allegations of operational misconduct.

It's important to emphasize: The IDF isn't present at the distribution sites and has not shot civilians at distribution sites. There have been very few incidents that took place in areas separate from the sites, and at hours that were outside of the distribution hours where our troops operated against a threat approaching them. 

Why Is Aid Not Reaching Civilians?

The internet is flooded with fabricated visuals, and false accusations of tactical starvation by the IDF. The State of Israel does not starve civilians, and everything it does to facilitate the entry of aid proves the contrary. The IDF is not indifferent to the hardships of the civilians in Gaza and as aforementioned, went through lengths to allow the entry of humanitarian aid at scale. 

There are two main issues with getting the aid into the hands of civilians. Firstly, the UN has simply not  picked up all of the trucks full of aid for delivery. Hundreds of trucks remain waiting inside Gaza uncollected. 

Humanitarian aid waiting at the Kerem Shalom crossing (July 27, 2025)

Israel has dedicated time and effort and paused military activity to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. When international organizations do not distribute the aid, they allow it to sit in the distribution centers, allowing for valuable resources to waste away. The GHF has been more consistent in its handling of aid. Today, over 2 million meals across three distribution sites have been distributed.

The second issue, by no surprise, is Hamas. They have a strong record of stealing aid in order to survive, and this time it has come at the expense of Gazan civilians. Aid meant for families is hoarded for the leaders’ nourishment or sold to support their terrorist activities.

When international organizations eventually pick up the trucks from the crossings, they are often intercepted and looted. Standing on top of trucks, guns loaded and active, driving wildly down roads packed with hungry civilians, they disregard and abuse the public they are supposedly governing over. 

Footage of Hamas looting humanitarian aid (June 1, 2025)

Footage of Hamas looting humanitarian aid (July 25, 2025)

Additionally, they have committed multiple sabotage attempts at GHF distribution centers. On June 11, 2025, Hamas hijacked a bus carrying American GHF workers, and murdered multiple employees. On July 5, 2025, they threw two grenades at the Rafah distribution center - while Gaza’s civilians were still present - that led to the injury of two GHF workers. 

Hamas’s ongoing exploitation of humanitarian aid is aimed at preserving its dominance. If the population is receiving supplies elsewhere, they no longer rely on Hamas for survival. Without a public to threaten, they have no foundation. 

Hamas will stop at nothing to ensure their own needs are fulfilled. They are pushing this false narrative of deliberate starvation that is being echoed by the media, meanwhile they sit in their tunnels feasting on stolen food.

Footage of Hamas eating the looted aid in tunnels (July 23, 2025)

What the western world is forgetting while they blame Israel for stopping the aid, is that in those very tunnels seen above, are 50 hostages, whose hunger is all the more reason for Israel to be getting food into Gaza. 

There is no denying the hunger in Gaza. But Israel is not at fault. The UN is failing, and Hamas is exploiting, obstructing, and weaponizing the aid. They are intentionally inflicting civilian suffering to gain international sympathy and control - and it is working.

The IDF will continue to educate and inform the public about its goals and efforts: to keep humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza, to bring home our hostages, and to ensure that the civilians in Gaza are no longer under Hamas rule.