Aid is starting to arrive, but not enough, aid workers say; Israeli army orders evacuation of northern Gaza
Aid workers in Gaza said that flour and other food supplies will start to reach those most in need starting Thursday
The United Nations confirmed that about 90 of the 200 trucks of aid authorized by Israel this week have been collected and sent, but Palestinian officials say that is far too little to cover food shortages caused by an 11-week blockade.
On Wednesday, Israel allowed in 100 trucks carrying baby food and medical supplies.
On Tuesday, it allowed in 90 trucks, and on Monday, just five.
It was the first time Israel has eased restrictions, after strong international pressure.
Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said the trucks were carrying medicine, wheat flour and nutritional supplies.
However, distributing the aid has been difficult due to insecurity, the risk of looting and a lack of coordination with Israeli authorities.
Most of the supplies have been stuck on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Israel.
The UN said on Wednesday that the route provided by the Israeli army was not secure and there were fears of looting, which had delayed delivery.
Israel has blocked all humanitarian aid into Gaza since March 2, saying that much aid had already flowed in during a six-week ceasefire before that and that Hamas was stealing it.
The blockade was intended to pressure Hamas to release the hostages it is still holding.
The United Nations has warned that a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are at risk of starvation, and some Israeli army officials have warned that the region is on the brink of starvation.
“Some bakeries will receive flour to make bread, and we hope that distribution will start today,” Amjad al-Shawa, director of a network of Palestinian non-governmental organizations in Gaza, told Reuters.
He said that only 90 trucks have arrived so far.
“During the ceasefire, 600 trucks were arriving a day.
What we have now is a drop in the ocean, it’s nothing,” he said.
Bakeries supported by the UN World Food Program will produce the bread, and agency staff will deliver it directly to people, in a more controlled system than before, when bakers sold the bread at low prices.
“The idea is to reach the families most in need, the ones who are desperate, because this is just the beginning,” Shawa said.
Umm Talal al-Masri, a 53-year-old Palestinian displaced in Gaza City, described the situation as “unbearable.” “Nobody is giving us anything.
Everyone is expecting help, but we have not received anything.
We can barely prepare one meal a day,” she said.
New attacks and evacuation orders
As the first aid arrived since the blockade, Israeli military strikes killed at least 35 Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday, according to local health authorities controlled by Hamas.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the reports.
It has consistently said it strikes terrorist targets and tries to avoid civilian casualties.
At noon on Thursday, the Israeli military issued a major evacuation order for the northern Gaza Strip as part of a new offensive against Hamas.
In a post on the social media platform X, the army’s Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, urged residents of Sheikh Zayed, Salatin, Beit Lahiya, Jabalia and nearby towns to evacuate to the south.
He warned that these areas were “dangerous combat zones” and that the army was acting “with great force.” A similar order had been issued for parts of northern Gaza on Wednesday night in response to rocket fire.
The army said one projectile from northern Gaza was intercepted by the air force, and three others landed inside Palestinian territory.
In Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, a tank shell hit a medical warehouse inside Al-Awda Hospital and caused a fire, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.
Rescue workers tried to put out the fire for hours.
Medics said tanks were positioned outside the hospital, blocking access to the site.
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The health system in Gaza has been nearly paralyzed by the war, with most hospitals out of operation.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas led an invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing an estimated 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.
Fifty-eight hostages are still held captive, with at least 35 dead, according to Israeli estimates.
More than 53,000 people in Gaza have been killed or are presumed dead in the war, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.
That number includes hundreds of Palestinians killed in attacks since Israel began a new intensive operation last week.
On Thursday, the Hamas Health Ministry published a list of 16,503 children and teenagers up to the age of 18 who it says were killed directly by the war, in shootings or shelling.
The list includes names, identification numbers, dates of birth and information on how the data was collected, whether through hospital lists or family reports.
There is no independent verification of the data.
Previous studies have pointed to errors and inaccuracies in the lists and figures published by the Hamas-controlled authorities in Gaza, which often do not distinguish between fighters and civilians and are alleged to include people killed by failed Palestinian rockets or by natural causes.
In addition, Hamas and other terrorist groups often use older teenagers as fighters.
Published in 05/22/2025 22h20
Text adapted by AI (Grok) and translated via Google API in the English version. Images from public image libraries or credits in the caption.
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