53 killed in Gaza despite Israel announcement of ‘pauses’ in fighting
Aid trucks move from Egypt to Gaza amid deepening hunger crisis
Monitoring Desk
GAZA: Despite the so-called pauses, Israeli forces have killed at least 53 Palestinians in attacks on Gaza since the early hours of Sunday, as six more Palestinians starve to death.
They have seized the Freedom Flotilla’s Handala ship, detaining its 21 crew members, as they attempted to break the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, aid trucks started moving towards Gaza from Egypt after months of international pressure and warnings from relief agencies of starvation spreading in the Palestinian enclave.
Dozens of trucks carrying tonnes of humanitarian aid moved towards the Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing in southern Gaza.
International aid organisations say there is mass hunger among Gaza’s 2.2 million people, with food running out after Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March, before resuming it in May with new restrictions.
Israel says it has let enough food into Gaza and accuses the United Nations of failing to distribute it. The United Nations says it is operating as effectively as possible under Israeli restrictions.
Palestinian sources confirmed that aid had begun dropping in northern Gaza.
Separately, international activists on an aid ship that set sail from Italy en route to Gaza said in a post on X that the vessel had been intercepted.
The UN said on Thursday that humanitarian pauses in Gaza would allow “the scale up of humanitarian assistance” and said Israel had not provided enough route alternatives for its convoys hindering aid access.
Dozens of Gazans have died of malnutrition in the past few weeks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry while 127 people have died due to malnutrition, including 85 children, since the start of the war, which began nearly two years ago.
On Wednesday, more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave.
The military also said on Saturday that it had connected a power line to a desalination plant, expected to supply daily water needs for about 900,000 Gazans.
