(Al Jazeera Media Network) Israel’s military and the United Nations say a few UN trucks carrying humanitarian aid have been allowed into besieged Gaza, the first such delivery in nearly three months.
The UN on Monday called it a “welcome development” but “a drop in the ocean” when so much more aid is needed to address the humanitarian crisis. It is far short of the more than 500 trucks per day that entered Gaza before the Hamas-led attack on Oct 7, 2023. Food security experts last week warned of famine.
Israel had kept Gaza under total blockade since March 2. It announced it would allow limited supplies of food into Gaza as it launched an intensified ground offensive during an ongoing heavy bombardment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that pressure from allies was behind the move. His office had said Israel would open the way for some food to enter the Gaza Strip after a “recommendation” from the army the previous evening.
The announcement came shortly after the Israeli military launched “extensive ground operations” that are reported to have killed more than 150 people within 24 hours.
On Monday, Israel carried out at least 30 air strikes within an hour in the Khan Younis area, and from dawn killed at least 84 Palestinians across Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
“Israel will allow a basic amount of food for the population to ensure that a hunger crisis does not develop in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement late on Sunday.
After 11 weeks of total blockade, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said Israeli authorities cleared nine aid trucks to enter Gaza, where harsh restrictions on food and aid have sparked accusations that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war.
Fletcher called the entry of the trucks through the Karem Abu Salem crossing (Kerem Shalom in Hebrew) a “welcome development” but said aid must be allowed into the Strip on a massive scale to deliver relief for Palestinians.
“It is a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed, and significantly more aid must be allowed into Gaza starting tomorrow morning,” Fletcher said in a statement.
The UN secretary-general’s spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, also reiterated that “this is not enough”.
“This aid will be distributed through our own mechanisms, through our own networks, which is acceptable to us,” Dujarric told Al Jazeera.
“We do not have the … luxury of saying, ‘well, if it’s only nine trucks, we’re not going to do it’. [But] It’s clearly not enough … we have been very clear to our Israeli counterparts, and we remain in constant touch with them that this is not enough, that this is putting people at risk,” Dujarric said.
In the meantime, the leaders of Britain, France and Canada warned their countries would take action, including possible sanctions, if Israel does not halt its renewed military offensive in Gaza and lift aid restrictions.
“The Israeli Government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law,” a joint statement released by the British government said.
“We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank … We will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions,” it added.
Twenty-two donor countries also issued a joint statement Monday urging Israel to “allow a full resumption of aid into Gaza immediately.”
The foreign ministers of the countries said that “whilst we acknowledge indications of a limited restart of aid,” the population of the war-ravaged territory “faces starvation” and “must receive the aid they desperately need.”
The statement was signed by the top diplomats of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/19/israel-to-allow-limited-food-into-gaza-amid-intensified-military-offensive
