Clearly sensing a turning-point in world opinion, as the death toll from starvation mounts exponentially in Gaza, Israel brought dozens of sympathetic journalists to a crossing to wage a PR campaign on Thursday.

The Israeli government has pivoted to a new deflection: The famine in Gaza is not the result of Israel’s publicly announced March 2 blockade of all food entering Gaza, nor is it connected to the Israeli- and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which replaced the UNRWA aid system Israel shut down with its own militarized version in late May. Instead, according to the new Israeli campaign, the blame lies with the United Nations. “Hundreds of aid trucks have entered Gaza with Israel’s approval, but the supplies are standing idle, undelivered,” the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared on X. “The reason? The UN refuses to distribute the aid.”

The focal point of the Israeli accusation against the UN is a collection of some 900 aid trucks that have already crossed into Gaza but which have been unable to distribute the aid. Yet Israel has actively prevented the UN from distributing aid. Tamara Alrifai, a spokesperson for UNRWA, told Drop Site that Israeli restrictions on the movement of the organization’s staff have made distribution impossible. “Claiming that the UN isn’t picking up food and other urgent supplies, and promoting images that these goods are just sitting near the crossing is disingenuous to say the least,” she said.