'Drop in the ocean': First supply of aid in months enters Gaza as Israel orders evacuations
Displaced people at a temporary shelter in the seaport area of western Gaza City. Source: AAP / Middle East Images/ABACA/PA Flour and other food aid will start reaching some of Gaza's most vulnerable people after Israel let some humanitarian aid trucks through, but nowhere near enough to make up for shortages caused by an 11-week blockade, Palestinian officials said. Israel imposed the blockade on all supplies in March, saying Hamas was seizing deliveries for its fighters — a charge the group denies The United Nations said a quarter of Gaza's 2.3 million people were at risk of famine.
"Some bakeries will begin receiving flour to produce bread, and we expect the distribution of bread to begin later today," Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network in Gaza, told the Reuters news agency. He said just 90 trucks had entered. "During the ceasefire, 600 trucks used to enter every day, which means that the current quantity is a drop in the ocean, nothing," he said.
Bakeries backed by the UN's World Food Programme would produce the bread and the agency's staff would hand it out — a more controlled system than previously when bakers sold it directly to the public at a low cost, he added. "The idea is to try and reach the most needy families, those who are desperate, as it is just the start," Shawa said. Palestinian health minister Majed Abu Ramadan said on Thursday that 29 children had died from "starvation-related deaths" in Gaza in recent days and that many more were at risk. Palestinians have been scrambling for basic supplies, with Israel's blockade leading to critical food and medicine shortages.
Umm Talal al-Masri, 53, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza City, described the situation as "unbearable". "No one is distributing anything to us. Everyone is waiting for aid, but we haven't received anything," she said. "We barely manage to prepare one meal a day." UN agencies have said that the amount of aid entering Gaza falls far short of what is required to ease the crisis.
"I am tormented for my children," Hossam Abu Aida, another resident of the Gaza Strip, told AFP. "For them, I fear hunger and disease more than I do Israeli bombardment," the 38-year-old added.
The Israeli army issued an evacuation warning on Thursday for 14 neighbourhoods of northern Gaza, as it pressed a renewed offensive that has drawn international condemnation. In an Arabic-language statement on Thursday, the military said it was "operating with intense force" in 14 areas in the northern Gaza Strip, accusing "terrorist organisations" of operating there.
As the first aid arrived since the blockade, Israeli military strikes on Gaza killed at least 52 Palestinians across the enclave on Thursday, Gaza's civil defence agency said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the reports. It has repeatedly said it seeks to avoid civilian casualties and targets militants. In Beit Lahiya on the northern edge of the enclave, a tank shell hit a medicine warehouse inside Al-Awda Hospital and set it ablaze, the health ministry said.
Rescue workers had been trying to extinguish the fires for hours, it added. Tanks are stationed outside the hospital, medics say, effectively blocking access to the facility. The Gaza healthcare system has been barely functioning, with most of the medical facilities out of order, because of repeated Israeli military strikes, raids and the ban on the entry of medical supplies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel would be open to a temporary ceasefire to enable the return of hostages taken by Hamas-led fighters. But if they were not returned, he said it would press ahead with a military campaign to gain total control of Gaza.
"Netanyahu continues to stall and insist on pursuing the war. There is no value to any agreement that doesn't stop the massacres in Gaza permanently," senior Hamas official Sami Ab Zuhri said in response to Netanyahu's comments. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack in October 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign has since killed more than 53,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip, where aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread.
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