Approximately 750 metric tonens of food are now entering the Gaza Strip daily, according to the WFP, but this was still well below the scale of needs after two years of Israel’s devastating war that has reduced much of Gaza to ruins.

“To be able to get to this scale-up, we have to use every border crossing point right now,” WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told a Geneva news briefing on Tuesday.

She said only two of the Israeli-controlled crossings into Gaza were operational – the Karem Abu Salem in the south and al-Karara in the centre (called Kerem Shalom and Kissufim in Israel, respectively).

Etefa said that sustaining the ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump was “vital; really it’s the only way we can save lives and push back on the famine in the north of Gaza.”

The US president’s 20-point plan for ending the war envisages “full aid” being sent into Gaza. An Israeli security official told Reuters that humanitarian aid continues to enter through the Karem Abu Salem crossing and additional crossings in accordance with the plan, without naming them.

The spokesperson said the UN agency now had 26 food distribution points open in Gaza – up from five on Friday, but still far short of the 145 it hopes to run throughout the territory. Most are in the south and centre of the Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt would remain closed until further notice, with its reopening dependent on Hamas handing over the bodies of deceased captives.

Hamas on Tuesday said it would hand over the remains of two more Israeli captives. The Qassam Brigades said it “will hand over the bodies of two Israeli prisoners that were exhumed today in the Gaza Strip at 9pm Gaza time (18:00 GMT).”

The group has so far handed over 13 of the 28 captives’ bodies it had pledged to return under the deal.

Some nutrition supplies for children and pregnant women have reached northern Gaza via the south, Etefa said, but far short of the level required.

“We haven’t had large-scale convoys into Gaza City or to the north of Gaza,” she said, adding that the WFP had not been granted permission to use the main north-south Salah al-Din Street.

Food supplies delivered so far are enough to feed about half a million people for two weeks, she said. Many Palestinians in Gaza were storing the food they are receiving because they are afraid that supplies might again dry up.

“They eat part of it, and they ration and keep some of the supplies for an emergency, because they are not very confident how long the ceasefire will last and what will happen next,” she said.

Israel will coordinate airdrops of aid into Gaza from foreign countries in the coming days, an Israeli security official confirmed to ABC News, as several European countries are scheduled to hold an emergency call Friday over the dire conditions in the enclave.

So far, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates will be participating in the aid drops.

Aid drops have taken place a number of times in the Gaza Strip since the war began, and on multiple occasions have led to deaths and injuries, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

MORE: 'They're losing hope': What doctors, aid workers are seeing in Gaza amid hunger crisis
The United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy will hold an emergency call on Friday to talk about the deteriorating conditions in Gaza as more than 100 aid groups warn mass starvation is fast approaching, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Thursday.

"The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible. While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen. We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe," Starmer said.

Ohad Zwigenberg/AP
Smoke and fire rise to the sky following an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, July 24, 2025.
Ohad Zwigenberg/AP

"We will discuss what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need while pulling together all the steps necessary to build a lasting peace. We all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay," Starmer said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, "It is essential to build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and enable it, by accepting its demilitarization and fully recognizing Israel, to contribute to the security of all in the Middle East."

"There must be an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. It is also necessary to ensure the demilitarization of Hamas, secure and rebuild Gaza," Macron continued.

MORE: Israel-Middle East conflict: Slideshow
Macron said he would make the official announcement at the U.N. in September. Starmer signaled the same British support.

"We are clear that statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people. A ceasefire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution which guarantees peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis," Starmer said.

Israel condemned France's decision, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying, "Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became. A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it. Let's be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel."

AFP via Getty Images
A woman and a child react after identifying the body of a family member at the Nasser hospital, among Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on the al-Mawasi refugee camp and the eastern neighborhoods of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 24, 2025.
AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. State Department rejected the idea that Israel — and by extension the U.S. — is weaponizing aid to Palestinians in Gaza amid rising criticism from the United Nations and humanitarian groups.

"This humanitarian conflict lies at the feet of Hamas, who could end this conflict today by releasing the hostages and laying down their arms," State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Thursday.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said "there is no famine" in Gaza, in an online briefing Wednesday.

Mencer blamed Hamas and called the food crisis in Gaza "a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas."

Pigott touted the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — though its distribution sites are in limited areas in Gaza and aid groups say the supplies provided through the GHF is not nearly enough to address the crushing need.

The U.N. and other aid organizations have refused to collaborate with the group, citing concerns about its transparency and political impartiality.

"This is over 1000 plus since the 27th of May when the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started distributing food and people have been shot both while trying to collect food in these distribution centers where Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distributes, but also when there have been UN convoys and other aid convoys getting into Gaza and people have tried to jump on those trucks and have been shot and killed," Ajith Sunghay, from the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said.

MORE: Israel-Middle East conflict: Slideshow
"Ultimately, what we have seen us do is deliver close to 90 million meals into Gaza during the war zone, [and] the ability to deliver that aid in a way where it is not being looted by Hamas," he said.

"We want to see an end to the devastation that has taken place in Gaza. That's why we have seen this commitment to get aid to the people who need it in a way where it is not weaponized by Hamas. That commitment remains. It is a commitment from President [Donald] Trump and Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio. That is why we have supported the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation," Pigott said.

Pigott said the administration was continuing to call on "other entities to step up in working through this mechanism in order to deliver aid to the people of Gaza without it being looted by Hamas."

More than 1,000 people have also been killed by Israeli gunfire near aid distribution sites in Gaza, according to the United Nations. Most of those are operated by GHF, which opened its aid distribution sites on May 27.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement earlier this month, its troops fired near crowds "in order to remove an immediate threat posed to them," though it wasn't specific.

Israeli officials have long accused Hamas of seizing humanitarian goods and selling them to fund militant activity. Hamas denies those claims.

Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 24, 2025 [Khamis Al-Rifi/Reuters]
By Virginia Pietromarchi and Jillian Kestler-D'Amours
Hospitals in the besieged Gaza Strip have recorded two more deaths “due to famine and malnutrition” in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, bringing the total to at least 113.
Hamas says it has submitted to mediators its response to a proposed Gaza ceasefire deal. Israel says it is examining it.
The response reportedly includes amendments to conditions around the entry of aid, areas from which the Israeli army should withdraw, and guarantees on securing a permanent end to the war.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 59,587 people and wounded 143,498. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.

In a statement posted on its Telegram channel on Tuesday, the movement said famine in Gaza has entered a dangerous and unprecedented phase after five months of a complete closure imposed by Israel on the Strip.

According to the statement, nearly 100 civilians, including 80 children, have died of malnutrition, in addition to a thousand starving civilians who had been killed by Israeli soldiers while trying to collect aid.

Hamas criticised the Arab and Islamic “official silence” regarding Gaza, considering their positions and statements “far below the level of the catastrophe facing two and a quarter million people,” in the Strip.

“The deafening silence disappoints our oppressed people in the nation’s leaders and encourages the war criminal (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu to pursue his policy of starvation and genocide against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip;” it said.

“Our people are starving and thirsty, while thousands of aid trucks are piling up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, at a time when the occupation government is imposing a criminal mechanism of killing and humiliation to manage starvation;” it added.

Hamas has also condemned the Islamic nation’s failure to implement the decisions of the extraordinary Arab-Islamic summit held in Riyadh in November 2023, calling for a “historic stance” by activating all pressure tools to break the Israeli siege and allowing the immediate entry of humanitarian aid.

It comes as the UN chief says Gaza's "last lifelines" are collapsing, with humanitarian conditions breaking down at an "accelerating" pace during Israel's offensive

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy tells the BBC he's "sickened" by the "grotesque" scenes in Gaza

On Monday, he joined 27 other nations in condemning the "horrifying" killing of hundreds of Gazans trying to get food from Israel's aid operations

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization says Israel's new ground offensive in central Gaza has compromised its efforts to continue working, after its facilities were attacked; Israel said its troops came under fire in Deir al-Balah and it had been "in contact with the international organisations working in the area"

Israel does not allow the BBC and other international media into Gaza to report freely.