The food is just outside the border. But getting it to Gaza's starving is a chaotic process.

Thousands of aid trucks loaded with lifesaving food, water and medical supplies are lined up outside Gaza, and hundreds more inside the border.

Thousands of aid trucks loaded with lifesaving food, water and medical supplies are lined up outside Gaza, and hundreds more inside the border. A handful of miles away, a third of Gaza’s population is on the brink of starvation, with a surging number dying of malnutrition. Why is it so hard to get aid into the enclave?

The Israeli military, which manages the entry of all aid into the besieged enclave, says it has allowed in an average of 70 trucks a day since May, but that the United Nations and other aid agencies have failed to distribute it.

This number is already far fewer than the hundreds of trucks necessary to feed the population, aid agencies say, and crossing the border into Gaza is just one hurdle in a broken distribution chain largely controlled by Israel since it began allowing a limited flow of aid into the strip in May following a nearly three-month total blockade. The current process is plagued by complex bureaucracy, deadly shootings at aid distribution sites and civil disorder exacerbated by Israel’s relentless bombing campaign.

“The Kerem Shalom is not a McDonald’s drive-thru where we just pull up and pick up what we’ve ordered,” Stéphane Dujarric, a U.N. spokesperson, told reporters Wednesday, referring to the primary aid crossing from Israel into Gaza. “There are tremendous security impediments.”

“And, frankly, I think there’s a lack of willingness to allow us to do our work,” Dujarric added.