Israel pressed ahead on Tuesday with its new military offensive in Gaza despite mounting international criticism, launching airstrikes that health officials said killed at least 85 Palestinians. Israeli officials said they also allowed in dozens more trucks carrying aid.
Two days after aid began entering Gaza, the desperately needed new supplies have not yet reached people in Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade for nearly three months, according to the United Nations. Experts have warned that many of Gaza's 2 million residents are at high risk of famine, reports UNB citing AP.
Under pressure, Israel agreed this week to allow a “minimal” amount of aid into the Palestinian territory after preventing the entry of food, medicine and fuel in an attempt to pressure the Hamas resistance group. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said 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.
Cogat, the Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian aid, said five trucks entered Monday and 93 trucks entered on Tuesday. But Dujarric said the UN confirmed only a few dozen trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday.
The aid included flour for bakeries, food for soup kitchens, baby food and medical supplies. The UN humanitarian agency said it is prioritizing baby formula in the first shipments.
But none of that aid actually reached Palestinians, according to the UN Dujarric described the new security process for getting aid cleared to warehouses as “long, complex, complicated and dangerous." He said Israeli military requirements for aid workers to unload and reload the trucks are hindering efforts to distribute the aid. Cogat did not immediately comment on the new procedures.
The United Nations humanitarian agency received approval for about 100 trucks to enter Gaza, spokesman Jens Laerke said, which is far less than the 600 that entered daily during the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March. Israel's Foreign Ministry said dozens are expected to enter each day.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he decided to let in limited aid after pressure from allies, who told him they couldn't support Israel while devastating images of starvation were coming out of Gaza.
