Israeli strikes kill 45 in Gaza, as desperately needed aid fails to reach Palestinians
Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 45 people, including several women and a week-old infant.
The fresh strikes come as Israel's war on Hamas shows no signs of relenting, despite a surge in international anger at Israel's widening offensive.
Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Tuesday, but the aid has not yet reached Palestinians in desperate need, according to aid groups. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Tuesday evening that although the aid has entered Gaza, aid workers were not able to bring it to distribution points where it is most needed, after the Israeli military forced them to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and workers ran out of time.
Internal notes circulated among aid groups on Wednesday said that no humanitarian trucks had left Kerem Shalom, the border crossing in southern Gaza that is operated by Israel. The notes said 65 trucks moved from the Israel side of the crossing to the Palestinian side, but hadn't made it into Gaza.
The amount of aid Israel has started to allow into war-ravaged Gaza is not nearly enough and was 'a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over,' the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) aid group said on Wednesday.
An aid truck entering from Israel into Gaza, on the road to the Kerem Shalom crossing near the Israeli-Gaza border on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters
Israel has come under massive international pressure to abandon its intensified military campaign in Gaza and to allow aid into the territory, where humanitarian agencies say a total blockade has sparked critical food and medicine shortages.
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