Israel-Hamas war: Pressure on Israel to open more aid routes into Gaza grows as hunger spreads

Palestinians sit by their belongings after visiting their homes, destroyed in the Israeli offensive on Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. Photo / AP

Efforts to get desperately needed humanitarian aid to war-wracked northern Gaza gained momentum on Wednesday, with the European Union increasing pressure for the creation of a sea route from Cyprus to Gaza and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron saying Israel’s allies were losing patience.

While aid groups say all of Gaza is mired in a humanitarian crisis, the situation in the largely isolated north stands out. Many of the estimated 300,000 people still living there have been reduced to eating animal fodder to survive. The UN says one in six children under the age of 2 in the north suffers from acute malnutrition.

Amid the global pressure to alleviate the crisis, two Israeli officials said on Wednesday the government will begin allowing aid to move directly from its territory into northern Gaza and will also co-operate with the creation of the sea route from Cyprus.

Israel would allow 20 to 30 aid trucks to enter northern Gaza from Israel on Friday, the start of more regular deliveries via that route, one of the officials said. It will also begin doing security checks on Sunday on aid in Cyprus before it’s delivered via sea to Gaza, the official said. The ship will be part of a pilot project to test the feasibility of the sea route. The aid is UAE-funded and made possible with US involvement.

Palestinians carry their belongings after visiting their houses, destroyed in the Israeli offensive on Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. Photo / AP

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the upcoming shipments with the media.

Aid groups have said it has become nearly impossible to deliver supplies within most of Gaza because of the difficulty of co-ordinating with the Israeli military, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order. It is even more difficult to get aid to the north.

Aid trucks have to drive from the Rafah crossing with Egypt or the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, both on the southern edge of Gaza, through the conflict zone to reach the largely cut-off areas in the north.

Last week, an attempt by the Israeli military to facilitate the movement of aid ended in tragedy when more than 100 Palestinians were fatally shot by Israeli forces or trampled to death in a melee.

On Wednesday, hundreds of people ran along a seaside road on the outskirts of Gaza City to collect bags of flour, boxes of water and canned food donated by Turkey and Egypt, part of a shipment trucked in from southern Gaza.

Cameron told Parliament’s House of Lords he planned to tell visiting Israeli government minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday Israel’s allies’ patience with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was wearing “very thin”.

A Palestinian carries their belongings after visiting their home, destroyed in the Israeli offensive on Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. Photo / AP

“We’ve had a whole set of things we’ve asked the Israelis to do, but I have to report to the House that the amount of aid they got in February was about half what they got in January,” he said.

Meanwhile, European Union Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen will visit Cyprus on Friday to inspect installations at the port of Larnaca, from where aid would leave for Gaza if a sea route is established, Cypriot government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis said.

EU spokesman Eric Mamer said the bloc is hopeful the corridor will open “very soon”.

Concerned by the lack of access to food, the United States, Jordan and other nations have begun making air drops of aid in recent days, but aid groups say only a fraction of the needed assistance can be delivered by air.

The war began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 in which Palestinian militants killed around 1200 people and took about 250 hostages. More than 100 of them were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November.

The attack sparked an Israeli invasion of the enclave of 2.3 million people. Gaza’s health ministry said on Wednesday the Palestinian death toll from the war had climbed to 30,717. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and maintains detailed casualty records. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tallies but says women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.

Israel says it has killed over 13,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence.

Aid groups say the fighting has displaced most of the territory’s population and pushed a quarter of the population to the brink of famine.

Meanwhile, efforts to negotiate a ceasefire and have it begin before the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in a few days have so far borne no fruit. The US, Qatar and Egypt have worked on an agreement in which Hamas would release up to 40 hostages in return for a six-week ceasefire, the release of some Palestinian prisoners and a major influx of aid to Gaza. Hamas has said it wants a full end to the war and Israeli forces’ withdrawal.