Revealed: Most aid sent to Gaza is intercepted by Hamas or desperate civilians before it reaches its target
Data from the UN shows that just 14 per cent of the pallets collected at the Gaza border arrived safely at their destination.
The rest (86 per cent) were intercepted – 'either peacefully by hungry people or forcefully by armed actors, during transit in Gaza', the UN said.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has previously accused armed militias of looting the aid convoys at gunpoint.
Figures show that of the 29,885 aid pallets collected for delivery in Gaza between mid-May and last weekend, 25,703 were taken en route.
It means only 4,182 pallets containing vital supplies intended for Gaza's desperately hungry inhabitants made it safely to the destination.
The UN is unable to break down how much of the missing aid – equating to 23,353 tons in the last two and a half months – has been snatched by Hamas militants, or taken by some of the more than two million people living in Gaza's warzone.
But the figures underline the gravity of the humanitarian crisis with both Hamas and Israel blaming each other.
Charities operating in the disaster zone last night laid bare the extent to which Gaza's civilian population was struggling.
Sarah Davies, who is based in Jerusalem for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said: 'Regardless of how many trucks enter Gaza, the critical issue is whether aid actually reaches the people who need it.
'Right now, that is not happening at the scale required.
'At the Red Cross Field Hospital, we are treating more patients showing signs of malnutrition, which delays recovery and particularly affects children's development and wellbeing.
'We are also facing challenges in replenishing basic medical items and consumables at the rate they are being used. Given the rising number of weapon-wounded patients, materials such as bandages, IV fluids, surgical gloves and other essentials are being depleted rapidly.
'We've seen a significant increase in the number of patients arriving after being wounded who tell us they were injured while attempting to access food at distribution points. Some tragically did not survive, or are declared dead on arrival.
'We have consistently emphasised that bringing aid into Gaza is only one part of the equation. The aid must be able to be moved safely and swiftly to reach vulnerable patients in hospitals, the elderly, children and pregnant women. That is not happening nearly enough today.'
A spokesman for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said its health facilities in the region had received 'hundreds of people wounded or killed while simply trying to find something to eat'.
They said: 'Very little food is entering the Gaza Strip, nowhere near enough to feed two million people.
'The few boxes that do enter rarely make it to people in need. And those that manage to reach people in need are systematically accompanied by bloodbaths, either from the chaos of the situation itself, or because Israeli forces and US security contractors are shooting at crowds.
'Regardless of where and how this massive loss of life is happening, regardless of who is pulling the trigger, the conditions of desperation and suffering that we are witnessing first-hand in Gaza have been engineered by Israeli authorities against its obligations as occupying power, which include the obligation to ensure humanitarian action is protected.
'We need aid to be allowed in, at scale, with guarantees that convoys will reach people in need safely, and we need a full return to the UN-led independent humanitarian mechanism.'
At least 175 people – including 93 children – have now died from starvation in Gaza since the war began following the Hamas attacks on October 7 2023, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry.
Data shows the vast majority (98.6 per cent) of the pallets contain food. The remainder of the aid comprises fuel, health supplies and other forms of nutrition.
Most of the aid (90 per cent) comes from the UN's World Food Programme, with the World Central Kitchen (6.5 per cent) and Unicef (2.1 per cent) among the next biggest suppliers.
Hospital officials in Gaza said at least a further 23 Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces as hungry crowds sought out food.
Witness Yousef Abed described coming under what he called indiscriminate fire, looking around and seeing at least three people bleeding on the ground.
He said: 'I couldn't stop and help them because of the bullets.'
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US President Donald Trump, asked by a reporter on Tuesday whether he supported the reoccupation of Gaza, said he was not aware of the 'suggestion' but that 'it's going to be pretty much up to Israel'. At least 28 Palestinians were killed overnight and into Wednesday in the Morag Corridor, an Israeli military zone in southern Gaza where UN convoys have been repeatedly overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds in recent days, and where witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire. The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots as Palestinians advanced towards them, and that it was not aware of any casualties. Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, said another four people were killed in the Teina area, on a route leading to a site in southern Gaza run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an American contractor. The Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of six people killed near a GHF site in central Gaza. 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The UN human rights office said last week that some 1,400 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid since May, mostly near GHF sites but also along UN convoy routes where trucks have been overwhelmed by crowds. It says nearly all were killed by Israeli fire. This week, a group of UN special rapporteurs and independent human rights experts called for the GHF to be disbanded, saying it is 'an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law'. The experts work with the UN but do not represent the world body. The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots when crowds threatened its forces, and the GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray and fired into the air on some occasions to prevent deadly crowding at its sites. 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The Israeli military said security forces went to the scene to disperse the gathering and accompanied the trucks to their destination. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack and abducted another 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Of the 50 still held in Gaza, around 20 are believed to be alive. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. It is part of the now largely defunct Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source for the number of war casualties.
