WASHINGTON — The U.N.’s decision in July to begin moving aid into war-torn Syria without the consent of President Bashar Assad was heralded as unprecedented. It was the first time that humanitarian need trumped a nation’s sovereignty.

Five months later, aid workers are dismayed that more trucks loaded with U.N. aid aren’t moving into Syria, where civilians are dodging bullets and barrel bombs in the crossfire of a war that has killed 200,000. Despite their disappointment, they still want the U.N. Security Council next week to renew a resolution that permits the U.N. aid to move through four border crossings — two in Turkey, one in Jordan and one in Iraq — without Assad’s blessing.

The U.N. humanitarian office has said that if security allowed, U.N. aid trucked through the four crossings could reach 2.9 million people, complementing the much higher levels of cross-border aid that non-governmental organizations have been moving into the country for years. So far, the number of people who have benefited from aid delivered under terms of the resolution is in the hundreds of thousands, not millions.

“While some progress has been made, over 12 million people still urgently need help,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote late last month. “Nearly 5 million of them live in areas that remain hard to reach despite the additional access granted through Resolution 2165, and only a portion are receiving humanitarian assistance.”

He said the resolution had enabled U.N. agencies and partners to reach more places where assistance is urgently needed. But “needs continue to rise and the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate.”