European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday that a maritime corridor would carry aid from Cyprus to Gaza, where famine looms more than five months into the Israel-Hamas war.
Here's a look at the factors driving the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip.
How does aid reach Gaza now?
Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required to meet basic humanitarian needs have been allowed into Gaza since October 9, when Israel placed the Hamas-ruled territory under a "total siege" in response to the resistance campaign that triggered the war.
Aid began to trickle in through the Rafah crossing, on Gaza's southern border with Egypt, on October 21, after Israeli strikes hit the area in the early days of the war.
The opening of the Kerem Shalom crossing, also located in the south of Gaza, followed on December 17, allowing trucks to enter from Israel.
Israeli authorities require they be allowed to inspect all deliveries before they are allowed into Gaza.
As of Wednesday, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, a total of 14,477 trucks had been allowed through both crossings since the start of the war.
Israel says 16,093 trucks have entered, or about 105 per day, far below the average of 500 commercial trucks that had entered Gaza daily before the fighting began.
Unable to get enough aid into Gaza by land, some countries including Jordan and the United States have resorted to parachuting relief supplies in airdrops.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign against Hamas has killed at least 30,960 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.
What aid can enter?
Food items including flour, milk, bread, lentils and rice account for 200,000 of the 297,000 tons of aid that Israel says have reached Gaza so far.
Additionally, Israel says 176 tanks of fuel and 326 tanks of cooking gas have entered, along with medical supplies, water, equipment to build shelters, diapers, toiletries, mattresses and clothes. Yet many other essential items are rejected, frustrating aid groups.
Prior to the war, during its years-long blockade of Gaza, Israel restricted the entry of so-called "dual-use items" which it deemed could be used for military purposes.
"Everything related to energy generation, such as solar panels and generators, is almost always rejected," said Alexandre Fort, logistics coordinator for humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders in the Palestinian territories.
Another humanitarian source, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, told AFP that "except for some medical equipment, it is very difficult to get approval for items with electronics."
Why are trucks bottlenecked outside Gaza?
Israel's cumbersome screenings are a major reason current shortages are so glaring, aid workers say.
"Hundreds" of trucks wait in line on the Egyptian side at all times until they can be inspected and sent into Gaza, Fort told AFP.
Aid groups must provide a precise breakdown of the cargo they wish to deliver, he added, but "there's no definitive list of items that require a pre-authorization."
The "heavy" screening procedures are like "a lot of little brakes on the process that create bottlenecks at the border," said Fort. And when a single item is rejected, he said, the entire shipment is turned back.
What happens to aid inside Gaza?
When shipments do make it in, they are delivered on the Gaza side of the border to Palestinian trucks for distribution within the territory.
But dire shortages have led desperate Gazans to loot some convoys in northern Gaza, an area that has seen some of the worst devastation and hunger, aid workers say.
Making it to the north requires passing through the Israeli Wadi Gaza checkpoint, which is open only intermittently.
Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of "starving" Gazans, and the International Court of Justice ruled in January that Israel must take "immediate and effective measures" for aid provision.
Israel blames problems on the Palestinian side, saying the "ability of humanitarian organizations within the Gaza Strip to absorb the aid" dictates how much of it is let in.
Can a maritime corridor help?
As the war drags on and Gaza officials report more starvation deaths, the EU's von der Leyen said she hoped a maritime corridor from the Cypriot port of Larnaca to Gaza would open on Sunday -- an initiative Israel said it "welcomes."
Humanitarian workers and UN officials, however, say easing the entry of trucks would be more effective than sending aid via airdrops or by sea.
News of the eastern Mediterranean route came shortly after US President Joe Biden announced plans for a "temporary pier" to bring aid into Gaza.
Senior officials in Biden's administration said the effort will build upon the maritime corridor proposed by Cyprus -- the closest European Union member to Gaza.
The UN's World Food Program (WFP) has warned that the volume of aid that can be delivered this way will do little if anything to stave off famine.
Janez Lenarcic, EU commissioner in charge of crisis management, said this week that "there is a very simple solution, which can be implemented immediately."
That solution, he told a news conference in Jerusalem, "is the opening of land crossings into Gaza, particularly from the north."
A White House official told reporters on Thursday that Washington has "been working with the Israelis to open a new crossing directly into north Gaza."
