COGAT Cites Gaza Food Supplies, Working Bakeries and Lower Prices
COGAT said on October 16 that more than 2.2 million tons of food had entered Gaza since the October 2025 ceasefire. The Israeli agency pointed to working bakeries and lower prices as it defended continuing food deliveries amid a dispute over commercial imports.
The Defense Ministry body coordinating civilian affairs said hundreds of aid trucks enter daily, with 70 to 80 percent carrying food. It also cited 41 bakeries producing over three million pitas a day and about 100 operating kitchens. These are COGAT’s operating figures, rather than a count of individual households receiving food.
What the tonnage measures
COGAT’s earlier detailed assessment, published on July 9, helps explain its accounting. For October 10, 2025 through June 7, 2026, it recorded 1,778,363 metric tons of food: 891,637 declared as humanitarian assistance and 886,726 as private sector supplies.
The document explains that tonnage is based on declarations by aid organizations and commercial providers. Pallets are counted and checked against coordination requests during security screening; every load is not individually weighed. The new cumulative total therefore describes food entering Gaza through these supply channels, rather than meals consumed.
Putting the price drop in context
The October 16 statement also cited an 83 percent fall in market food prices. Israel News Pulse could not independently verify the new bakery and kitchen totals, the measurement period and baseline for that price figure, or the Bakers Association statement to which COGAT referred.
A separate comparison in COGAT’s July assessment put the food consumer price index in May 2026 about 72 percent below September 2025. OCHA’s situation report dated October 2, published October 5, said September inflation remained 204 percent above levels before October 2023. Different dates and indicators mean these percentages cannot be treated as the same comparison.
The dispute over commercial shipments
COGAT said merchants notified it on October 13 that they were suspending import coordination because of Hamas charges and threats. The agency announced the interruption on October 14. Its deputy spokesperson, Lt. Daniel Kantorovich, told the Associated Press that Israel had been ready to coordinate their trucks.
The dispute involved a demand for NIS 10,000 per truck. Hamas characterized the payment as voluntary, while Nahed Sheheiber, head of Gaza’s private truckers union, disputed that merchants had initiated the halt. Humanitarian deliveries continued, and Sheheiber told Reuters that some commercial goods still arrived from Egypt.
On October 15, the Board of Peace’s Gaza representative, Nickolay Mladenov, said he had received COGAT’s letter and condemned reported coercion of merchants. His statement records his response to that account, rather than independent verification of each incident.
From crossing to household
OCHA identified Kerem Shalom as the only operating cargo crossing after Zikim closed on May 24. Shipments undergo Israeli inspection before entering; aid organizations and commercial distributors then move food into their respective networks. Humanitarian deliveries concentrate on staples, while commercial imports also bring products such as fruit, dairy and meat.
The UN’s July 23 food security assessment credited expanded assistance with substantial improvements, while estimating that more than 1.2 million people faced Crisis or worse food insecurity between mid April and June. It projected more than 1.4 million for July through December. That second figure is a projection, not an October 16 headcount.
OCHA also warned that funding shortages would reduce cooked meals and household food parcels from October. Entry volumes, market availability and families’ ability to obtain food measure different stages of the supply chain. COGAT says it will continue facilitating deliveries; sustained distribution also requires functioning kitchens, purchasing power and funding for aid organizations.
