The state on Friday, over two months late, submitted its response to a petition to the High Court of Justice that demanded an “extensive” supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza. It its response, the state largely blamed UN agencies for what it said was their failure to adequately distribute aid in the territory.

Despite the alleged UN failure, the state said that the Israel Defense Forces had been working over recent days “to enable and to ease the entry of aid to its destination,” while looking for “additional solutions” for aid collection and distribution.

The state also suggested that it “update” the court on the humanitarian aid situation in another three weeks, implying that there is no need for the court to hold hearings on the petition at this stage.

The state’s response comes as the IDF — for the first time in the ongoing war with Hamas — airdropped aid into Gaza, and announced on Sunday morning that it will hold daily, 10-hour humanitarian pauses in military operations to enable the distribution of aid.

Those moves come against the backdrop of an increasingly dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, including reports of growing levels of severe, acute malnutrition, and deaths of children by starvation.

The Gisha human rights organization, which filed the petition, accused the state of presenting “partial descriptions of reality” and “trying to avoid accountability for its policy of restricting and obstructing the entry of aid.”

The organization also accused the court of “enabling” the state’s conduct, noting that Justice Yosef Elron, who is presiding over the case, allowed the state to delay its response to the petition by over two months, and saying that the result was “the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip to which the world is witness.”

The UN dismissed last week similar accusations to the ones made in the state’s response to the petition, alleging that Israeli authorities have rejected a large proportion of aid collection and distribution requests, and that bureaucratic, logistical, and administrative obstacles as well as ongoing hostilities have impeded the UN’s ability to deliver aid inside the Strip.

According to the state in its response to the petition, 4,242 trucks of humanitarian aid were unloaded at the Kerem Shalom goods crossing in southern Gaza between May 19 and July 24. Another 2,086 trucks of aid destined for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centers were unloaded, and 1,890 were collected.

“Alongside this, gaps exist, principally the partial collection by the UN of the contents of trucks that were unloaded on the Gazan side of the border,” the state claimed.

“The IDF is currently working in cooperation with international organizations in order to enable and ease the entry of aid to its destination, while finding additional solutions for collection, distribution, and movement inside the Strip,” it stated.

Regarding widespread reports that IDF soldiers have shot and killed Palestinians seeking to obtain the humanitarian aid packages provided by the GHF, the state said that the incidents were being examined by the “relevant authorities in the IDF,” and that “any claim of deviation from the law and from orders will be comprehensively examined.”

It said that the incidents had also been examined and presented to senior IDF officials “as part of the operational learning process” in order to “improve the operational response and “in order to reduce as far as possible the friction between IDF forces and the civilian population.”

The UN has said that as many as 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access the aid from the GHF. The IDF has disputed this figure, but has not provided its own estimate.

Gisha denounced the state’s response, saying it was trying to shirk its responsibilities under international law.

“It presents partial descriptions of reality while trying to avoid accountability for its policy of restricting and obstructing the entry of aid,” said Gisha, and claimed the state’s response “whitewashes the severe failure” of the GHF and the deaths of numerous Palestinians killed trying obtain the aid it delivers.

“The state places responsibility for the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip on international organizations, and shirks its obligations under international law to facilitate safe distribution of aid to the population,” Gisha added.

The organization said it was reiterating its demand that the High Court order the full opening of the crossings, and that Israel “guarantee the safe and unfettered operations of the UN and other humanitarian organizations throughout the Gaza Strip.”