Gaza aid trucks held up as pressure mounts on Israel

Palestinians in Gaza were still waiting for aid to arrive, UN officials said Wednesday, two days after the Israeli government said it had lifted an 11-week-old blockade that has brought the Palestinian enclave to the brink of famine.

The Israeli military said five aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday and 93 on Tuesday but even those minimal supplies have not made it to Gaza's soup kitchens, bakeries, markets and hospitals, according to aid officials and local bakeries that were standing by to receive supplies of flour.

"None of this aid - that is a very limited number of trucks - has reached the Gaza population," said Antoine Renard, country director of the World Food Programme (WFP).

A United Nations spokesperson said trucks were still in the loading area of Kerem Shalom, the sprawling logistics hub at the southeastern corner of the Gaza Strip, because access to the rest of Gaza was too insecure to allow safe distribution.

However, two merchants familiar with the matter said late Wednesday that at least 15 aid trucks left the Kerem Shalom crossing en route to World Food Programme warehouses in central Gaza.

As some trucks left the Israeli side of Kerem Shalom, a small group of Israeli protesters angry that any supplies were being let into Gaza while hostages were still held there tried to block them.

"There is no flour, no food, no water," said Sabah Warsh Agha, a 67-year-old woman from the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya sheltering in a cluster of tents near to the beach in Gaza City.

Thousands of tons of food and other vital supplies are waiting near crossing points into Gaza but until it can be safely distributed, around a quarter of the population remains at risk of famine, Renard said.

As people waited, air strikes and tank fire killed at least 50 people across the Gaza Strip Wednesday, Palestinian health authorities said.

The Israeli campaign has killed 53,655 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip, where aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread.

Gaza's civil defence agency said that more than 20 air strikes hit Khan Yunis and its surroundings overnight, with the targets including encampments for Palestinians displaced by the war, now in its 20th month.

At least 3,509 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, following a breakdown in ceasefire negotiations.