Aid flow into Gaza falls short of the ceasefire terms, Israeli figures show

JERUSALEM (AP) — Aid deliveries into Gaza are falling far short of the amount called for under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, according to an Associated Press analysis of the Israeli military’s figures as humanitarian groups say the shortfall is severely impacting the strip's 2 million people.

Under the October ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Israel agreed to allow 600 trucks of aid into Gaza a day.

However, Israel’s own figures suggest that an average of only 459 trucks a day have entered the Gaza Strip between Oct. 12, when the flow of the aid restarted, and Sunday, according to an AP analysis. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid entry, provided the figures.

COGAT said that roughly 18,000 trucks of food aid had entered Gaza from when the ceasefire took effect until Sunday, amounting to 70% of all aid that had entered the territory since the truce.

This means that COGAT estimates that including the rest of the aid — items that are not food, such as tents and medicines — a total of just over 25,700 trucks have entered Gaza. That is well under the 33,600 trucks that should have gone in by Sunday, under the terms of the ceasefire.

In response to the AP analysis, COGAT insisted Wednesday the number of trucks entering Gaza each day was above the 600 mark but refused to elaborate why the figures don't match or provide raw data on truck entry.

COGAT used to give daily figures of trucks entering Gaza during the war but stopped doing so when the ceasefire began. Rights groups say that is because it controls the crossings and has sole access to track how much aid and commercial goods are entering Gaza.

The United Nations and aid groups have often said the amount of aid entering Gaza is far lower than COGAT claims.

The U.N. says only 6,545 trucks have been offloaded at Gaza crossings between the ceasefire and Dec. 7, amounting to about 113 trucks a day. That's according to its online database. The U.N. figures do not include aid trucks sent by organizations not working through the U.N. network.

A Hamas document on Saturday provided to the AP put the amount of total aid trucks that have entered since the truce at 7,333.

This week, the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs, known as OCHA, stressed a “dire” need for more aid for Gaza, saying Israeli restrictions on aid have bottlenecked recovery efforts.

Humanitarian groups say lack of aid has had harsh effects on much of Gaza's residents, most of whom were forcibly displaced by war. Food remains scarce as the Palestinian territory struggles to bounce back from famine, which hit parts of Gaza during the war.

Starving mothers in Gaza are giving birth to malnourished babies, some of whom have died in hospital, according to a recent report by UNICEF. As winter rains pick up, displaced families living in tents have been left exposed to the elements and without supplies to cope with floods and the biting cold.

“Needs far outpace the humanitarian community’s ability to respond, given persistent impediments,” a UNICEF report said on Monday. “These obstacles include insecurity, customs clearance challenges, delays and denials of cargo at the crossings, and limited routes available for transporting humanitarian supplies within Gaza.”

Israel temporarily stopped all aid entry at least once in response to alleged Hamas violations of the truce. Israel said that Hamas has failed to return the bodies of the hostages in the time period established by the ceasefire, while Hamas has said it struggled to find the bodies due to the destruction left by Israel in the Palestinian territory.

Hamas has also accused Israel of violating the ceasefire terms because of the slow flow of aid, continued closure of the Rafah crossing and ongoing deadly strikes on Gaza.

Since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire began on Oct. 10, the price for a 12-kilogram (26.5 pound) cylinder of cooking gas has shot up to 1,314 shekels ($406), about 18 times what it was before the war.

That has left many residents relying on firewood for both cooking and to stay warm as temperatures plunge ahead of winter, including the 23-member Abed family in the northern city of Jabaliya.

“We are living under the rubble and sleeping on torn sheets. We collect some firewood, and cut sponges to start a fire,” Marwan Abed, 62, told the AP from under the crumbling concrete of his house. He said firewood is the only way “to keep the children warm” and to prepare coffee.

Israel is demanding Palestinian militants return the remains of the final hostage, Ran Gvili, from Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Wednesday that Gvili’s return was a condition of moving to the second phase of the ceasefire.

“Once phase one is completed, phase two will begin,” it said.

Hamas militants and Red Cross crews continued to comb the ruins of Gaza City for the final body this week. The militant group Islamic Jihad claimed it had handed over the last hostage body in its possession.

On Tuesday, Hamas called for more international pressure on Israel to open key border crossings, cease deadly strikes on the territory and allow more aid into the strip.

Regional leaders have said time is critical for the ceasefire agreement as mediators seek to push the truce into its second, more complicated phase.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would name members “early next year” to a panel tasked with governing Gaza and overseeing reconstruction under a two-year, renewable U.N. mandate, Trump had previously said he would name members to the so-called “Board of Peace,” a key element of the ceasefire deal, by the end of 2025. He did not detail why the timeline for naming board members has shifted.

“It is going to be one of the most legendary boards ever, everybody wants to be on it,” Trump said. He added that kings, prime ministers and presidents have asked to be included on the board.

The director of the Shifa hospital in Gaza, Mohamed Abu Selmiya, said doctors received on Wednesday the body of a 17-year-old Palestinian teenager who had been run over and crushed to death by an Israeli tank in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Asked about the incident, Israel’s military said it had killed a militant on Wednesday who had crossed the so-called Yellow Line — which divides the Israeli-held part of Gaza from the rest — in northern Gaza.

It said it could not provide any more details on the incident.

Associated Press writers Megan Janetsky in Jerusalem, Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo, Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

Displaced Palestinian children play beside a makeshift tent camp where they take shelter in Zawaida, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians ride in a cart pulled by a vehicle through a flooded street after stormy weather in Gaza City Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A thunderstorm is seen over a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Zawaida, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinian children walk through a tent camp after stormy weather in Gaza City Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A young girl looks on as she holds a sandwich at a tent camp for displaced Palestinians on the beach in Gaza City Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israeli soldiers gather next to the entrance of a tunnel where the army says the body of soldier Hadar Goldin was held in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. Hamas returned his remains to Israel as part of the current ceasefire. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

FILE - Hamas militants accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) head to Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City to search for the remains of the final hostage, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

Displaced Palestinians repair their tents at a tent camp on the beach after a stormy weather in Gaza City, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Oil companies offered $300 million for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday in the first of 30 sales planned for the region under Republican efforts to ramp up U.S. fossil fuel production.

The sale came after President Donald Trump's administration recently announced plans to allow new drilling off Florida and California for the first time in decades. That's drawn pushback, including from Republicans worried about impacts to tourism.

Wednesday's sale was mandated by the sweeping tax-and-spending bill approved by Republicans over the summer. Under that legislation, companies will pay a 12.5% royalty on oil produced from the leases. That’s the lowest royalty level for deep-water drilling since 2007.

Thirty companies — including industry giants BP, Chevron and Shell — submitted bids on parcels covering 1,600 square miles (4,142 square kilometers). Total high bids were down from $382 million offered in the most recent lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico under former Democratic President Joe Biden in December 2023.

“This sale reflects a significant step in the federal government’s efforts to restore U.S. energy dominance and advance responsible offshore energy development,” said Laura Robbins, acting director of the Gulf region for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is part of the Interior Department.

The agency initially reported receiving $279 million in high bids, but post-sale statistics show the figure was just over $300 million. Officials confirmed the higher number was correct but could not immediately explain the discrepancy.

The administration’s promotion of fossil fuels contrasts sharply with its hostility to renewable energy, particularly offshore wind. A judge on Monday struck down an executive order from Trump blocking wind energy projects, saying it violated U.S. law.

Environmentalists said the fossil fuel sales would put wildlife in the Gulf at an higher risk of dying in oil spills. Spills occur regularly in the region and have included the 2010 Deepwater Horizon tragedy that killed 11 workers in an oil rig explosion and unleashed a massive spill.

Most parcels that received bids were in water depths greater than 800 meters (2,625 feet).

“The Gulf is already overwhelmed with thousands of oil rigs and pipelines, and oil companies are doing a terrible job of cleaning up after themselves,” said Rachel Matthews with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, an industry group, said the takeaway from Wednesday's sale was that the Gulf “is open.”

While results of individual lease sales may fluctuate, Milito added, “the real success is the resumption of a regular leasing cadence."

The industry and Republican lawmakers had complained that the Biden administration conducted only a handful of lease sales in the Gulf — the largest source of U.S. offshore oil production — as it moved away from fossil fuels to address climate change.

"Knowing that (another lease sale) is coming in March 2026 allows companies to plan, study, and refine their bids, rather than being forced to respond to the uncertainty of a politically-driven multi-year pause" in leasing, Milito said.

At least two lease sales annually are mandated through 2039 and one in 2040. Administration officials cited the new, more predictable schedule as a reason for the lower bidding by oil companies.

“They are not pressed to come in all at once,” Robbins told reporters at an online news conference.

The Gulf lease sale supports an executive order by Trump that directs federal agencies to accelerate offshore oil and gas development.

Earthjustice attorney George Torgun said the Trump administration conducted the sale without analyzing how it would expose the Gulf region to spills and could devastate vulnerable marine life such as the endangered Rice’s whale, which numbers only in the dozens and lives in the Gulf of Mexico.

The environmental group has asked a federal judge to ensure that the lease sale and future oil sales better protect Gulf communities.

Only a small portion of parcels offered for sale typically receive bids, in areas where companies want to expand their existing drilling activities or where they foresee future development potential. It can be years before drilling occurs.

The drilling leases sold in December 2023 and during another sale in March 2023 are held up by litigation, according to Robbins. A federal court ruled this spring that Interior officials did not adequately account for impacts to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and the Rice's whale.

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

FILE - Oil platforms are visible through the haze near the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Galveston, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)