Israel Resumes Gaza Goods After Hamas Truck-Fee Dispute

Israel said on Monday, October 19, that it will gradually resume commercial goods shipments into Gaza after a days-long halt sparked by a dispute over Hamas demands for 10,000 shekels ($3,225) per truck. COGAT, the Israeli military agency overseeing humanitarian affairs in Gaza, said it restarted coordination after merchants reported that Hamas authorities had withdrawn the payment demands.

COGAT added a caveat: it hasn't independently verified the merchants' accounts.

The Security Picture

The dispute raises a basic question: who profits when goods enter Gaza? COGAT said shipments will resume gradually, with essential goods prioritized ahead of winter. The agency also said it will tighten oversight, allowing payments only through documented bank transfers. Merchants found to have paid Hamas will be excluded from the system.

Hamas offered its own account. It said the 10,000-shekel payments were voluntary contributions by better-off Gazans to a national fund supporting people in need. Gaza's Government Media Office rejected allegations that it imposed taxes or fees on commercial trucks. It accused Israel of using the claims to justify restrictions and called for 600 trucks to enter daily.

The cease-fire hasn't brought calm. Reuters reported that Israel says Hamas has continued to rearm and carry out attacks in violation of the truce, while Hamas accuses Israel of undermining it. Gaza health officials said about 1,500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the cease-fire announced in October 2025, one year ago. Israel said militants in Gaza have killed four of its soldiers over the same period. Local health officials said at least five Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, died in separate strikes in Gaza City and Khan Younis on Monday. The Israeli military didn't immediately comment.

The Humanitarian Complication

The World Food Programme said a funding shortfall will end its monthly assistance to 500,000 people in Gaza and reduce aid for other recipients. About 1.1 million Palestinians, roughly half Gaza's population, will still receive food or cash assistance each month, but in smaller amounts.

Shaun Hughes, the WFP country director, said access isn't the problem. "That's not because we don't have humanitarian access to deliver food; that's because we don't have funding," he told Agence France-Presse in East Jerusalem. He described the earlier expansion as "a lifeline," noting the WFP reached between 1.5 million and 1.8 million people monthly after the cease-fire.

The cuts are concrete. Families receiving food assistance will get one parcel instead of two, along with a smaller bag of wheat flour. The 75,000 families on cash assistance will see monthly amounts drop from 1,250 to 750 shekels ($400 to $240). The WFP says it needs about $450 million over the next six months for Gaza and the West Bank, but has received only about half the usual funding for the Palestinian territories this year. Resources fell sharply after the Trump administration drastically cut contributions to U.N. agencies and bilateral aid. In September, the agency halved West Bank recipients from 400,000 to 200,000.

Hughes painted a grim picture. "People are not safe. Airstrikes continue daily. People remain displaced," he said, adding that "the humanitarian conditions are brutal." The latest assessments show 1.4 million people, two-thirds of Gaza's population, remain acutely food insecure.

Disputed Findings and Continuing Restrictions

The WFP said its efforts mitigated the effects of famine conditions that the U.N. Integrated Food Security Phase Classification reported in Gaza last August. Israel disputed that finding and called it a lie. Israel has intensified its longstanding criticism of the United Nations since the Gaza war, accusing the body of bias and of perpetuating Palestinian dependency.

Israel allows more goods under the cease-fire but maintains heavy restrictions. It turns away shipments of items it alleges have military uses, including prosthetic limbs, the United Nations says.

Why This Matters: The truck-fee episode shows how governance in Gaza still runs through Hamas, even a year into a cease-fire. If a ruling group can levy 10,000 shekels per truck and call it voluntary, aid and commerce become revenue streams for the same authority Israel says is rearming and violating the truce. Israel's push for documented bank transfers aims to separate civilian supply from militant financing. Meanwhile, shrinking international funding means ordinary Gazans, not Hamas, absorb the cuts as winter nears. That tension between security controls and civilian need will shape the next phase.