What to know about aid entering Gaza, the other battle between Israel and Hamas

JERUSALEM (AP) — Two and a half months have passed since Gaza ’s latest ceasefire took effect, and the supplies being delivered to war-battered Palestinians are again the subject of fierce debate.

The underlying question is whether Israel is upholding a key commitment under the U.S.-backed ceasefire by allowing enough humanitarian aid into the territory. Israel says it is, but that claim is disputed by data from humanitarian organizations and Hamas-linked Gaza authorities.

The debate plays out in numbers of trucks said to be entering Gaza. But that tells only part of the story. Most trucks are operated by the private sector and carry commercial goods that are unaffordable to many Palestinians.

Here’s what to know about the dispute.

The ceasefire calls for a minimum of 600 trucks a day, though it’s not clear whether that figure refers specifically to aid trucks. Israel says it has met that stipulation since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10. Its closest ally, the United States, which coordinates aid deliveries from a hub in southern Israel, says Israel has met it for the last five weeks.

But about 80% of those trucks are private-sector vehicles, according to the Israeli military agency in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, known as COGAT.

The effects are mixed. Markets in Gaza are now better stocked, and high prices for essentials such as flour and meat have begun to ease, but most people cannot afford the goods after two years of war. And many commercial items like cigarettes, cellphones and snacks don't address widespread malnutrition.

Commercial supplies “are often prioritized ahead of aid deliveries yet do not address humanitarian needs,” the nonprofit Refugees International said in a statement last week.

COGAT says about 70% of the trucks are carrying food, and “the remainder carry medical equipment, shelter supplies, tents, clothing and other essential humanitarian assistance.”

The agency would not give a breakdown of raw data, saying that sharing such details would benefit Hamas. A COGAT-run data dashboard on Gaza aid stopped updating after the ceasefire began.

Rights groups and others point out that Israel controls the crossings into Gaza and has sole access to track how much aid and how many commercial goods are entering.

“There is little transparency about how much and what exactly is getting in,” said Shaina Low, communications adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Global food security experts last week said all of Gaza is in danger of starvation, but that the spread of famine beyond Gaza City, where it was declared in August, had been averted. Israel disputed the report, calling it “distorted” and “biased.”

Last week’s report undercut Israel’s claims. The authors, citing data they said was provided by Israel, said an average of 540 trucks — both aid and commercial ones — entered Gaza daily in October since the ceasefire and that the November average was 581. Both numbers fall below the 600-truck requirement.

Meanwhile, entities inside Gaza assert that the number of trucks is even smaller.

A report issued this week by the World Food Program said an average of 256 trucks carrying both aid and commercial goods entered daily in the first two weeks of December. The report cited the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Ministry of State for Relief Affairs.

It was not clear why those numbers differ so much from Israel's.

The WFP report also noted that even the entry of commercial goods often faces “a complex system of approvals” and “exorbitant fees" reaching several thousand dollars per truck entering through the Rafah crossing with Egypt and from the occupied West Bank. That drives up prices of essential items such as eggs and vegetables.

The noncommercial trucks entering Gaza, or about 20% of the traffic, carry out deliveries for the United Nations and aid groups, or for various countries. Israel's government does not provide aid to Gaza.

The U.N.'s data dashboard tracks how much aid from its agencies and partners is unloaded at Gaza border crossings and how much reaches intended destinations. No independent entity tracks aid donated by international governments.

From Oct. 10, when the ceasefire began, through Dec. 21, 9,379 trucks reached intended destinations in Gaza, and food made up over 80% of that aid by weight.

That means about 130 trucks a day on average reached their destinations during that period. The dashboard shows that 156 other trucks during that time were intercepted by hungry crowds or armed gangs.

But the amounts inside the trucks can vary sharply because of Israeli restrictions, which include the denial of items Israel believes could be used for military purposes, such as tents with aluminum frames.

Such inconsistencies led to reduced food rations earlier this month, with some households in Gaza receiving rations covering 75% of minimum caloric needs to “reach as many people as possible,” according to the World Food Program.

Last week’s report by the world’s leading authority on food crises said there have been “notable improvements” in food security in Gaza since the ceasefire. But the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said the situation remains “highly fragile.”

The report said Gaza's needs remain immense and unhindered aid is required.

Palestinians have told The Associated Press that even though Gaza’s markets have more products these days, most people can’t afford them.

Access is “deeply unequal,” the International Rescue Committee’s vice president for emergencies, Bob Kitchen, said after the IPC report. He added: “Much of the food entering Gaza is also low in nutritional value, such as sweets and sugary drinks, which does little to support recovery from malnutrition.”

Anna reported from Lowville, New York. Associated Press writer Sally AbouAlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.

Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Palestinians walk along street market where fruits and vegetables are displayed for sale in Gaza City, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian vendor displays sardines for sale on a street of a local market in Gaza City, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian vendor displays sardines for sale on a street of a local market in Gaza City, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian looks at chicken cuts displayed for sale at a local street market in Gaza City, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians walk along street market where fruits and vegetables are displayed for sale in Gaza City, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

One U.S. service member was rescued and at least one was missing after two U.S. military planes went down in separate incidents including the first shoot-down since the war began nearly five weeks ago.

It was the first time U.S. aircraft have been downed in the conflict and came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”

One fighter jet was shot down in Iran, officials said. A U.S. crew member from that plane was rescued, but a second was missing, and a U.S. military search-and-rescue operation was underway.

Separately, Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation, said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down.

The war now entering its sixth week is destabilizing economies around the world as Iran responds to the U.S. and Israeli attacks by targeting the Gulf region's energy infrastructure and tightening its grip on oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Here is the latest:

U.S. and Israeli warplanes continued to pound Iran Saturday, hitting several targets including a petrochemical facility, Iranian media reported.

Iran's official English-language newspaper Tehran Times reported that an airstrike hit a facility belonging to Iran’s Agriculture Ministry in the western city of Mehran.

The newspaper said another air raid struck Mahshahr Special Petrochemical Zone in the southwestern Khuzestan province.

The semiofficial Fars news agency reported several explosions heard late Saturday morning in the facility.

Mehr, another semiofficial news agency, reported that the strikes hit four companies within the zone.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made the veiled threat in a social media post late Friday, asking about how busy oil tanker and container ship traffic is through the strait.

The 20-mile (32-kilometer) strait links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean and is one of the busiest chokepoints in global trade, with more than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships passing through it.

Iran has already greatly disrupted the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, sending fuel prices skyrocketing and jolting the world economy.

Disrupting transit through the Bab el-Madeb would force shipping firms to route their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, further hitting prices.

Israel’s rescue services said Saturday the man sustained glass shrapnel wounds after an Iranian missile hit the central city of Bnei Brak.

It wasn't clear if the glass shrapnel was caused by a direct strike or falling debris from an intercepted missile.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said it was taking the man to the hospital.

The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency said Saturday that the two men who were hanged belonged to the Iranian exile group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.

The agency said Abul-Hassan Montazer and Vahid Bani-Amirian were convicted of “being members of a terrorist group.”

This brings to six the total number of MEK members executed since the start of the war.

Activists and rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that its air force struck ballistic and and anti-aircraft missile storage sites in Tehran.

It said the strikes a day earlier included weapons manufacture sites as well as military research and development facilities in the Iranian capital.

It said the strikes are part of an ongoing phase to increase damage to Iran's “core systems and foundations.”

Authorities in Dubai said the facades of two buildings were damaged by debris from intercepted drones, including one belonging to U.S. tech firm Oracle. No injuries were reported.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to attack Oracle and 17 other U.S. companies after accusing them of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations in Iran.

Previous Iranian drone strikes caused damage to three Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

As of Friday, 247 of the wounded were Army soldiers, 63 were Navy sailors, 19 were Marines and 36 were Air Force airmen, according to Pentagon data available online.

It is unclear if the data includes any of the service members involved in the downing of two combat aircraft reported Friday.

Most of the wounded — 200 — were also mid to senior enlisted troops, 85 were officers and 80 were junior enlisted service members.

The current death toll remains at 13 service members killed in combat.

Palestinian Muslims attend Friday prayers outside Jerusalem's Old City due to restrictions linked to the Iran war, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Tamara and her sister Amal color pictures on the floor as their parents, Sara and Ahmed, who fled their village of Khiyam in southern Lebanon due to Israeli bombardment, sit inside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Mohammad Qubaisi, 53, with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon undergoes surgery by Dr. Mohammed Ziara, left, and his team, at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

FILE - An F-15E Strike Eagle turns toward the Panamint range over Death Valley National Park, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)