The U.N.’s Own Figures Show Most Food It Sends to Gaza Is “Intercepted”

United Nations officials delight in bashing U.S. and Israeli efforts to distribute aid in Gaza as a failure. But figures from one of the agency’s own reports reveal that its own work is being undone on a vast scale.

Close to 90% of the more than 2,000 U.N. food trucks sent to the strip since May 19th have been “intercepted,” either “peacefully by hungry people or forcefully by armed actors,” according to in-house monitoring.

Israeli officials have long accused Hamas terrorists of using stolen aid as a “means against the population” in Gaza.

The Jerusalem Post also reported late last week that aid hasn’t been making it to its destination because of “United Nations policies” and “delays.” All this after Jens Laerke, spokesman for a UN humanitarian agency, dismissed the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as a “failure” because “they are not doing what a humanitarian operation should do, which is providing aid to people where they are, in a safe and secure manner.”

Responding to the U.N.’s own figures, David Makovsky, director of an Arab-Israel relations programme at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, stressed that “anyone who supports getting more food to people in Gaza … must also ask tough questions of the [agency].” He added that it was “time for real journalistic scrutiny.”

Anyone who supports getting more food to people in Gaza—as I do—must also ask tough questions of the UN. This isn't about grainy footage. The UN itself reports that 87% of its 2,010 food trucks in Gaza (85% by tonnage) from May 19–July 29 were "intercepted"—either peacefully by… pic.twitter.com/9mFn27BD9H

— David Makovsky (@DavidMakovsky) July 30, 2025

American commentator Eyal Yakoby also criticised the mainstream media for not having been “bothered to report this.”

Perhaps the agency’s only hope in this case is that as few people read these figures as they do other U.N. reports.