Gaza Strip – The United Nations has reported that no humanitarian aid has yet been distributed within the Gaza Strip, despite aid lorries beginning to cross the border after an 11-week blockade.
Israeli officials stated that 93 trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday, carrying essential supplies including flour, baby food, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical drugs. However, the UN confirmed that while trucks reached the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, the aid has not yet made it to distribution points.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric explained that a UN team “waited several hours” for Israeli authorities to allow them access to the area, but “unfortunately, they were not able to bring those supplies into our warehouse.”
Mounting Pressure on Israel Amid Famine Warnings
Israel had agreed on Sunday to allow a “basic amount of food” to enter Gaza, where global experts have issued stark warnings of a looming famine.
International pressure on Israel continues to intensify. The UK announced it would suspend trade talks, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer describing the situation as “intolerable” and Israel’s military escalation as “morally unjustifiable.” The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, also stated the bloc would be reviewing its trade agreement with Israel in light of its actions in Gaza.
Mr. Dujarric highlighted the “complex” nature of the aid operation, explaining that Israel requires the UN to “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.” While he welcomed the arrival of supplies as a positive development, he described it as “a drop in the ocean of what’s needed.” UN bodies estimate that 600 trucks of aid per day are required to begin addressing Gaza’s severe humanitarian crisis.
Concerns Over Malnutrition Figures
Earlier, the UN’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher had told the BBC that thousands of babies could die in Gaza if aid was not immediately allowed in, stating, “There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them.”
When pressed for clarification, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) clarified that they were highlighting “the imperative of getting supplies in to save an estimated 14,000 babies suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Gaza, as the IPC partnership has warned about. We need to get the supplies in as soon as possible, ideally within the next 48 hours.” UNOCHA referenced a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) which projected 14,100 severe cases of acute malnutrition among children aged six to 59 months between April 2025 and March 2026 – a period of about a year, not 48 hours.
UNOCHA spokesman Jens Laerke further explained at a news conference, “For now 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. And if they do not get those, they will be in mortal danger.”
Last week, the Hamas-run health ministry reported that 57 children had died from the effects of malnutrition over the past 11 weeks.
International Calls for Aid and Ceasefire
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed Israel’s decision to allow some aid, telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the US was “pleased to see that aid is starting to flow in again,” while acknowledging it was “not in sufficient amounts.”
On Monday, the leaders of the UK, France, and Canada issued a joint statement calling on the Israeli government to “stop its military operations” and “immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.” As part of its announcement today, the UK also imposed sanctions on several prominent Israeli settlers and settler-linked groups.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, which resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages taken. Since then, at least 53,475 people have been killed in Gaza, including 3,340 since the Israeli offensive resumed, according to the territory’s health ministry.
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