In Gaza, civilians have grown desperate. Footage shared online by Al Jazeera showed hundreds of people rushing towards what appeared to be an aid truck in what the news outlet said was Gaza City. The video couldn’t be independently verified and it wasn’t clear when it was filmed.
A day after the White House said it was time for Israel to scale back its military offensive, the World Food Programme, Unicef and the World Health Organisation said new entry routes needed to be opened to Gaza, more trucks needed to be allowed in each day, and aid workers and those seeking aid needed to be allowed to move around safely.
“People in Gaza risk dying of hunger just miles from trucks filled with food,” WFP executive director Cindy McCain said. “Every hour lost puts countless lives at risk.”
Death toll rises
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said on Monday the bodies of 132 people killed in Israeli strikes were brought to Gaza hospitals over the past day, raising the death toll from the start of the war to 24,100.
The ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between fighters and non-combatants in its tally, says two-thirds of those killed in the war were women and children. Israel says its forces have killed about 8000 militants, without providing evidence.
On Monday, the military said its forces and aircraft targeted militants in the second-largest city Khan Younis, a focus of the ground offensive, as well as in northern Gaza, where the Israeli military says it continues to expand its control.
Israel blames Hamas for the high death toll, saying its fighters make use of civilian buildings, and launch attacks from densely populated urban areas.
In Israel, a woman was killed and 12 other people were wounded in a car-ramming and stabbing attack in a suburb of Tel Aviv that police said was carried out by at least two Palestinians. They were later arrested. The police say the suspects stole three cars and attempted to run down pedestrians.
Palestinians have carried out several attacks against Israelis since the start of the war, mainly in Jerusalem or the occupied West Bank. About 350 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, mostly in confrontations during Israeli arrest raids or violent protests.
Unprecedented humanitarian crisis
The fighting, now in its 101st day, has set off an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which was already struggling from a lengthy blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas took power in 2007.
The crisis has been especially severe in northern Gaza: The UN said less than a quarter of aid convoys have reached their destinations in the north in January, because Israeli authorities denied most access. Israeli officials had no immediate comment.
The UN agencies said they wanted access to the Israeli port of Ashdod about 40km north of Gaza, which they say would allow larger amounts of aid to be shipped in and then sent directly to northern Gaza, much of which Israel levelled in the opening weeks of the war.
Israel has blamed the UN and other groups for the problems with aid delivery.
Moshe Tetro, an official with COGAT, an Israeli military body in charge of civilian Palestinian affairs, said last week that aid delivery would be more streamlined if the UN provided more workers to receive and pack the supplies. He said more trucks were needed to transfer the aid to Israel for security checks and that the working hours at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt needed to be extended.
After Hamas’ attack on October 7, in which 1200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 250 taken hostage, Israel sealed off the territory from aid. It relented after its top ally, the US, pressed it to loosen its restrictions. The US, as well as the UN, have continued to push Israel to ease the flow of aid.
