The UN says no aid has yet been distributed in Gaza despite aid lorries starting to cross the border after an 11-week blockade.
Israeli officials said 93 trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday, carrying aid including flour, baby food, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical drugs.
But the UN said that despite trucks reaching the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, no aid has been distributed so far.
Israel agreed on Sunday to allow a “basic amount of food” to enter Gaza, where global experts have warned of a looming famine.
Earlier, the UN’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the BBC thousands of babies could die in Gaza if Israel does not immediately let aid in.
The UN reports that despite aid trucks beginning to cross the border following an 11-week blockade, no aid has yet been delivered to Gaza.
According to Israeli officials, 93 trucks delivering medical supplies, pharmaceutical medications, flour, and baby food entered Gaza on Tuesday.
Trucks have arrived at the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, but according to the UN, no aid has been delivered as of yet.
A team “waited several hours” for Israel to grant them access to the area, but “unfortunately, they were not able to bring those supplies into our warehouse,” according to its spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
On Sunday, Israel consented to let a “basic amount of food” into Gaza, where international experts have issued famine warnings.
On Wednesday, the Hamas-run Civil Defense service reported that since midnight local time, 15 people—including a child—had been killed in airstrikes.
Israel has been under increasing pressure from the international community.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called Israel’s military escalation in Gaza “intolerable,” and the UK announced it would halt trade talks over the “morally unjustifiable” escalation.
In the meantime, Kaja Kallas, the head of EU foreign policy, announced that the bloc would be reevaluating its trade deal with Israel in view of its actions in Gaza.
Dujarric claimed that Israel’s requirement that the UN “offload supplies on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, and reload them separately once they secure our teams’ access from inside the Gaza Strip” made the aid effort “complex.”.
The supplies’ arrival was a good thing, he added, but he called it “a drop in the ocean of what’s needed.”.
According to UN agencies, in order to start addressing Gaza’s ongoing humanitarian crisis, 600 trucks per day are needed.
Earlier, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the BBC that if Israel does not immediately allow aid to enter Gaza, thousands of babies could perish.
“If we can’t get to them, 14,000 babies will die in the next 48 hours,” Mr. Fletcher stated in an interview with the BBC’s Today program. “.”.
When asked how he arrived at that number, he responded that there were “strong teams on the ground” working in schools and medical facilities, but he did not elaborate.
In response to a question from the BBC about the figure, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) stated: “As the IPC partnership has warned about, we are pointing to the imperative of getting supplies in to save an estimated 14,000 babies suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Gaza. As soon as possible, preferably within the next 48 hours, we must receive the supplies. “.
Among children aged six to 59 months, 14,100 severe cases of acute malnutrition are anticipated to occur between April 2025 and March 2026, according to a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
This could occur over a period of approximately a year, not just 48 hours, according to the IPC report.
“For the time being, let me just say that we know for a fact that there are babies who are in urgent life-saving need of these supplements that need to come in because their mothers are unable to feed themselves,” UNOCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said when asked about the numbers during a press conference. “.”.
He stated, “And they will be in mortal danger if they do not get those.”.
The health ministry, which is run by Hamas, announced last week that 57 children had perished over the previous 11 weeks as a result of malnutrition.
“We are happy to see that aid is starting to flow in again,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, praising Israel’s decision to permit some aid to enter Gaza. “.”.
In response to a Democrat who expressed disapproval of the number of aid trucks permitted entry, Rubio stated: “We were happy to see that decision was made, but I understand your point that it’s not in sufficient amounts. “.
The Israeli government was urged to “stop its military operations” and “immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza” in a statement released by the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, and Canada on Monday.
In its announcement on Wednesday, the UK also imposed sanctions on a number of well-known Israeli settlers and organizations associated with them.
In response to the cross-border attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which killed approximately 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, Israel began a military campaign in Gaza.
Since then, the territory’s health ministry reports that at least 53,475 people have died in Gaza, including 3,340 since the Israeli offensive resumed.
