No aid has reached people in Gaza, a UN aid official said on Wednesday, two days after the Israeli government said it had lifted an 11-week-old blockade that has brought the Palestinian enclave to the brink of famine.
The Israeli military said five aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday and 93 on Tuesday but supplies have not made it to Gaza’s soup kitchens, bakeries, markets and hospitals, according to aid officials and local bakeries that were standing by to receive supplies of flour.
“None of this aid – that is a very limited number of trucks – has reached the Gaza population,” said Antoine Renard, country director of the World Food Programme (WFP).
However, two merchants familiar with the matter told Reuters late on Wednesday that at least 15 aid trucks left the Kerem Shalom crossing en route to World Food Programme warehouses in central Gaza.
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The Israeli blockade has left Gazans in an increasingly desperate struggle for survival, despite growing international and domestic pressure on Israel’s government, which one opposition figure said risked turning the country into a “pariah state”.
Abdel-Nasser Al-Ajramy, the head of the Gaza bakery owners’ society, said at least 25 bakeries that were told they would receive flour from the WFP had seen nothing and there was no relief from the hunger for people waiting for food.
Israel imposed the blockade in March, saying Hamas was seizing supplies meant for civilians – a charge the militants deny – and a new US-backed system, using private contractors, is due to begin aid distribution in the near future.
As people waited for food, air strikes and tank fire killed at least 34 people across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Palestinian health authorities said. The Israeli military said air strikes hit 115 targets, which it said included rocket launchers, tunnels and unspecified military infrastructure.
The resumption of the assault on Gaza since March, following a two-month ceasefire, has drawn condemnation from countries that have long been cautious about expressing open criticism of Israel. Even the United States, the country’s most important ally, has shown signs of losing patience with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Britain has suspended talks with Israel on a free trade deal, and the European Union said it will review a pact on political and economic ties over the “catastrophic situation” in Gaza. Britain, France and Canada have threatened “concrete actions” if Israel continues its offensive.
Opinion polls show widespread support for a ceasefire that would include the return of all the hostages, with a survey from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem this week showing 70 per cent in favour of a deal.
But hardliners in the cabinet, some of whom argue for the complete expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza, have insisted on continuing the war until “final victory”, which would include disarming Hamas as well as the return of the hostages.
As some trucks left the Israeli side of Kerem Shalom, a small group of Israeli protesters angry that any supplies were being let into Gaza while hostages were still held there tried to block them.
Mr Netanyahu, trailing in opinion polls and facing trial at home on corruption charges – which he denies – as well as an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, has so far sided with the hardliners.
He received a further setback on Wednesday when Israeli media reported that the supreme court has ruled that a government decision to sack Ronen Bar, the head of the domestic intelligence service, was “illegal and contrary to law”.
Mr Netanyahu last night said Israel has probably killed Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar. An Israeli air strike on a hospital in southern Gaza targeted Sinwar earlier this month but his death had not been confirmed by Israel or Hamas.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on October 7th, 2023, which killed some 1,200 people by Israeli tallies and saw 251 hostages abducted into Gaza.
The campaign has 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.
– Reuters
