More than 100 aid organisations working in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have accused Israel of dangerously “weaponising aid” in its application of new rules for registering groups involved in delivering humanitarian assistance.

The letter represents the latest broadside from the international aid community against Israel after the EU, Britain and Japan on Tuesday called for urgent action to stop “famine” spreading in the Gaza Strip.

The letter was published as Gaza’s health authority reported continuing deaths from malnutrition in the besieged Palestinian territory, and amid threats by Israel to take full military control of the coastal strip with reports in Hebrew media suggesting the country may be planning to mobilise up to 100,000 reservists for the new offensive.
The letter, signed by organisations including Oxfam, Médecins Sans Frontières and Care, was written in response to registration rules announced by Israel in March that require organisations to hand over lists of their donors and Palestinian staff for vetting.

The groups contend that doing so could endanger their staff and give Israel broad grounds to block aid if groups are deemed to be “delegitimising” the country or supporting boycotts or divestment.

The registration measures were “designed to control independent organisations, silence advocacy and censor humanitarian reporting”, they said.

The letter added: “This obstruction has left millions of dollars’ worth of food, medicine, water and shelter items stranded in warehouses across Jordan and Egypt.”
On Tuesday, Israel’s ministry for diaspora and combating antisemitism said it had revoked the work permits of 10 NGOs that had applied for authorisations.

Under the new rules, which are vague and broad-reaching, a team led by the diaspora ministry can refuse registration to aid groups if they or their members published calls to boycott Israel in the past seven years; if there is “reasonable basis to assume” that they oppose Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state; or if they “actively advance delegitimisation activities against the state of Israel”.

The aid groups’ letter said the rules violated European data privacy regulations, noting that in some cases aid groups had been given only seven days to comply.

“Instead of clearing the growing backlog of goods, Israeli authorities have rejected requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in lifesaving goods, citing that these organisations are ‘not authorised to deliver aid’,” the letter added, saying that 60 requests from 29 organisations were denied in July citing this justification.

Cogat, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, denied the letter’s claims, adding without evidence that aid groups were being used as cover by Hamas to “exploit the aid to strengthen its military capabilities and consolidate its control”, despite the fact that Israel already claims to control 75% of Gaza.
The aid groups stressed on Thursday that most of them had not been able to deliver “a single truck” of life-saving assistance since Israel implemented a blockade in March.

The vast majority of aid is not reaching civilians in Gaza, where tens of thousands of people have been killed, most of the population has been displaced and famine is taking hold. UN agencies and a small number of aid groups have resumed delivering assistance, but say the number of trucks allowed in remains far from sufficient.

The letter was published as Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, backed plans for a major settlement development outside Jerusalem, which he said would represent the “final nail in the coffin” of Palestinian ambitions for their own state.

The E1 settlement plan for more than 3,000 housing units – which critics, including much of the international community, say would split the West Bank from occupied East Jerusalem – is highly likely to be approved by a planning body next week. But it still remains uncertain whether the plan, which has been frozen for more than five years, will advance, given the likely international fallout.

While his support for the plan was announced by Smotrich at a press conference on Thursday, it remains uncertain how much backing it has from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as does the attitude of Donald Trump’s White House.

Smotrich’s comments come after many countries said they would recognise a Palestinian state in September.

“This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise,” said Smotrich, whose extremist party has experienced a collapse in support.

Gaza City has come under intense air attack, the territory's Hamas-run civil defence agency has said, as Israeli forces prepare to occupy the city.
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman, said the residential areas of Zeitoun and Sabra had for three days been hit by bombs and drone strikes that "cause massive destruction to civilian homes", with residents unable to recover the dead and injured.
Meanwhile the UK, EU, Australia, Canada and Japan issued a statement saying "famine is unfolding in front of our eyes" and urged action to "reverse starvation".
They demanded "immediate, permanent and concrete steps" to facilitate the entry of aid to Gaza. Israel denies there is starvation in Gaza.

It has accused UN agencies of not picking up aid at the borders and delivering it.
The joint statement also demanded an end to the use of lethal force near aid distribution sites and lorry convoys, where the UN says more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed, mostly by the Israeli military.
Separately, the World Health Organisation on Tuesday appealed to Israel to let it stock medical supplies to deal with a "catastrophic" health situation before it seizes control of Gaza City.
"We all hear about 'more humanitarian supplies are allowed in' – well it's not happening yet, or it's happening at a way too low a pace," said Rik Peeperkorn, the agency's representative in the Palestinian territories.
"We want to as quickly stock up hospitals," he added. "We currently cannot do that. We need to be able to get all essential medicines and medical supplies in."
Israel's war cabinet voted on Monday to occupy Gaza City, a move condemned at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later that day. On Tuesday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was "at the beginning of a new state of combat".
The Israeli government has not provided an exact timetable on when its forces would enter the area. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's forces had been instructed to dismantle the "two remaining Hamas strongholds" in Gaza City and a central area around al-Mawasi.
He also outlined a three-step plan to increase aid in Gaza, including designating safe corridors for aid distribution, as well as more air drops by Israeli forces and other partners.
On the ground, however, residents of Gaza City said they had come under unrelenting attack from the air. Majed al-Hosary, a resident in Zeitoun in Gaza City, told AFP that the attacks had been "extremely intense for two days".
"With every strike, the ground shakes. There are martyrs under the rubble that no one can reach because the shelling hasn't stopped," he said.
"It sounded like the war was restarting," Amr Salah, 25, told Reuters. "Tanks fired shells at houses, and several houses were hit, and the planes carried out what we call fire rings, whereby several missiles landed on some roads in eastern Gaza."
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said that 100 dead had been brought to hospitals across Gaza over the past 24 hours, including 31 people who were killed at aid sites. Five more people had also died of malnutrition, it added.
Israel has faced mounting criticism over the 22-month-long war with Hamas, with UN-backed experts warning of widespread famine unfolding in the besieged territory.
On Tuesday members of an international group of former leaders known as "The Elders" for the first time called the war in Gaza an "unfolding genocide" and blamed Israel for causing famine among its population.
Following a visit to the Gaza border, Helen Clark and Mary Robinson, a former prime minister of New Zealand and a former president of Ireland, said in a joint statement: "What we saw and heard underlines our personal conviction that there is not only an unfolding, human-caused famine in Gaza. There is an unfolding genocide."

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel is in discussions with South Sudan about the possibility of resettling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to the war-torn East African country, part of a wider effort by Israel to facilitate mass emigration from the territory left in ruins by its 22-month offensive against Hamas.

Six people familiar with the matter confirmed the talks to The Associated Press. It’s unclear how far the talks have advanced, but if implemented, the plans would amount to transferring people from one war-ravaged land at risk of famine to another, and raise human rights concerns.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants to realize U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision of relocating much of Gaza’s population through what Netanyahu refers to as “voluntary migration.” Israel has floated similar resettlement proposals with other African nations.

Palestinians, rights groups, and much of the international community have rejected the proposals as a blueprint for forcible expulsion in violation of international law.

For South Sudan, such a deal could help it build closer ties to Israel, now the almost unchallenged military power in the Middle East. It is also a potential inroad to Trump, who broached the idea of resettling Gaza’s population in February but appears to have backed away in recent months.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment and South Sudan’s foreign minister did not respond to questions about the talks. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said it doesn’t comment on private diplomatic conversations.

Egypt opposes proposals to resettle Palestinians out of Gaza
Joe Szlavik, the founder of a U.S. lobbying firm working with South Sudan, said he was briefed by South Sudanese officials on the talks. He said an Israeli delegation plans to visit the country to look into the possibility of setting up camps for Palestinians there. No known date has been set for the visit. Israel did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the visit.

Szlavik said Israel would likely pay for makeshift camps.

Edmund Yakani, who heads a South Sudanese civil society group, said he had also spoken to South Sudanese officials about the talks. Four additional officials with knowledge of the discussions confirmed talks were taking place on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them publicly.

Two of the officials, both from Egypt, told AP they’ve known for months about Israel’s efforts to find a country to accept Palestinians, including its contact with South Sudan. They said they’ve been lobbying South Sudan against taking the Palestinians.

Egypt is deeply opposed to plans to transfer Palestinians out of Gaza, with which it shares a border, fearing an influx of refugees into its own territory.

The AP previously reported on similar talks initiated by Israel and the U.S. with Sudan and Somalia, countries that are also grappling with war and hunger, and the breakaway region of Somalia known as Somaliland. The status of those discussions is not known.

‘Cash-strapped South Sudan needs any ally’
Szlavik, who’s been hired by South Sudan to improve its relations with the United States, said the U.S. is aware of the discussions with Israel but is not directly involved.

South Sudan wants the Trump administration to lift a travel ban on the country and remove sanctions from some South Sudanese elites, said Szlavik. It has already accepted eight individuals swept up in the administration’s mass deportations, in what may have been an effort to curry favor.

The Trump administration has pressured a number of countries to help facilitate deportations.

“Cash-strapped South Sudan needs any ally, financial gain and diplomatic security it can get,” said Peter Martell, a journalist and author of a book about the country, “First Raise a Flag.”

Israel’s Mossad spy agency provided aid to the South Sudanese during their decades-long civil war against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum ahead of independence in 2011, according to the book.

The State Department, asked if there was any quid pro quo with South Sudan, said decisions on the issuing of visas are made “in a way that prioritizes upholding the highest standards for U.S. national security, public safety, and the enforcement of our immigration laws.”

From one hunger-stricken conflict zone to another
Many Palestinians might want to leave Gaza, at least temporarily, to escape the war and a hunger crisis bordering on famine. But they have roundly rejected any permanent resettlement from what they see as an integral part of their national homeland.

They fear that Israel will never allow them to return, and that a mass departure would allow it to annex Gaza and reestablish Jewish settlements there, as called for by far-right ministers in the Israeli government.

Still, even those Palestinians who want to leave are unlikely to take their chances in South Sudan, among the world’s most unstable and conflict-ridden countries.

South Sudan has struggled to recover from a civil war that broke out after independence, and which killed nearly 400,000 people and plunged pockets of the country into famine. The oil-rich country is plagued by corruption and relies on international aid to help feed its 11 million people – a challenge that has only grown since the Trump administration made sweeping cuts to foreign assistance.

A peace deal reached seven years ago has been fragile and incomplete, and the threat of war returned when the main opposition leader was placed under house arrest this year.

Palestinians in particular could find themselves unwelcome. The long war for independence from Sudan pitted the mostly Christian and animist south against the predominantly Arab and Muslim north.

Yakani, of the civil society group, said South Sudanese would need to know who is coming and how long they plan to stay, or there could be hostilities due to the “historical issues with Muslims and Arabs.”

“South Sudan should not become a dumping ground for people,” he said. “And it should not accept to take people as negotiating chips to improve relations.”

TEL AVIV — Over nearly two years of war in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s news broadcasts focused almost exclusively on Israeli victims of the conflict: hostages, both alive and dead, or still held in captivity; soldiers killed in battle, then buried at home.

The civilian suffering in Gaza, in which nearly 2 million people have been displaced and critical infrastructure destroyed, was rarely, if ever, mentioned. As missiles fell on Israeli cities and most of society hardened following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, there was an unwritten rule, journalists and media experts said, that kept Palestinian civilians mostly out of sight in domestic coverage of the war.

But last month, amid reports of mass starvation in the enclave and growing international outrage, news of the worsening crisis began to break through. The flood of images and condemnations, even from Israel's allies, gave Israeli journalists "a way into the story," said one prominent investigative reporter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue. "You see how much they've been waiting for it," she said.
Mainstream Israeli news outlets began showing footage of civilians in Gaza for the first time, including men on foot hauling sacks of food from aid distribution sites and children screaming as they crowded around the few remaining soup kitchens – results, the reports said, of Israel's months-long blockade of the Strip.

The moment was brief: Newscasts this week have returned to more familiar areas of coverage after Hamas released videos of an emaciated hostage, horrifying Israelis and triggering mass street protests. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also proposed a full reoccupation of the Palestinian territory, causing tensions between his government and military officials who oppose the plan.

Israel has barred outside journalists from entering Gaza, except for brief, controlled embeds with the military. Palestinian journalists, however, have produced a steady stream of coverage from enclave, filing for global news wires and other international outlets. They have "continued reporting despite killings, injuries, and arbitrary detention at the hands of Israeli forces," according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which says 178 reporters have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war.

But many Israelis, who are still grappling with the visual archive of Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants live-streamed thousands of hours of body-camera footage as they rampaged through southern Israel, remain skeptical of media reports coming out of Gaza. Some also distrust international media, accusing some outlets of downplaying coverage of the hostages.

As a result, few Israelis "make the effort to leave their feed, their bubble, whatever social media platform, and get to whatever other place to see what is happening" in Gaza, said Oren Persico, a reporter for the Seventh Eye, an investigative magazine focused on Israeli media and freedom of speech. "The algorithm knows already what you want to see."

According to Asa Shapiro, head of the advertising and marketing department at Tel Aviv University, the act of acknowledging, let alone sympathizing with, Gazans posed a dilemma both for journalists and viewers, who remain gripped by the fate of Israel's hostages. Fifty hostages are still in captivity, 20 of whom are presumed to be alive.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to propose fully reoccupying the Gaza Strip when he meets his security cabinet, Israeli media say.
"The die has been cast. We're going for the full conquest of the Gaza Strip – and defeating Hamas," local journalists quote a senior official as saying.
Responding to reports that the army chief and other military leaders oppose the plan, the unnamed official said: "If that doesn't work for the chief of staff, he should resign."
The families of hostages fear such plans could endanger their loved ones, with 20 out of 50 believed to be alive in Gaza, while polls suggest three in four Israelis instead favour a ceasefire deal to return them.
Many of Israel's close allies would also condemn such a move as they push for an end to the war and action to alleviate a humanitarian crisis.
Within Israel, hundreds of retired Israeli security officials, including former heads of intelligence agencies, issued a joint letter to US President Donald Trump on Monday, calling for him to pressure Netanyahu to end the war.
One of the signatories, ex-domestic intelligence agency chief Ami Ayalon, told the BBC that further military action would be futile.
"From the military point of view, [Hamas] is totally destroyed. On the other hand, as an ideology it is getting more and more power among the Palestinian people, within the Arab street around us, and also in the world of Islam.
"So the only way to defeat Hamas's ideology is to present a better future."
The latest developments come after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage deal broke down and Palestinian armed groups released three videos of two Israeli hostages looking weak and emaciated.
The footage of Rom Blaslavski and Evyatar David, both kidnapped from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023, has shocked and appalled Israelis. David is shown digging what he says is his own grave in an underground tunnel.
There has been some speculation that the latest media announcements are a pressure tactic to try to force Hamas into a new deal.
Israel's military says it already has operational control of 75% of Gaza. But under the proposed plan it would occupy the entire territory – moving into areas where more than two million Palestinians are now concentrated.
It is unclear what that would mean for civilians and for the operations of the UN and other aid groups. About 90% of Gaza's 2.1 million people have been displaced, some repeatedly, and are living in overcrowded and dire conditions. Humanitarian groups and UN officials say many are starving, accusing Israel of impeding the distribution of crucial aid.
Israel meanwhile says it will allow local businesspeople in Gaza to restart entry of some goods as part of efforts to improve conditions there. Approved items include baby food, fruit and vegetables and hygiene products. Private imports were previously stopped because of claims that Hamas was benefitting.
The Israeli military has previously held back from taking over some areas of Gaza, including central parts, because of an assumption that there are living hostages held there. Last year, six Israeli hostages were executed by their captors after ground forces moved in.
There has not been a formal response but officials from the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank, denounced the Israeli proposal, calling on the international community to intervene to prevent any new military occupation.
Palestinians point out that far-right Israeli ministers have been openly advocating for the full occupation and annexation of Gaza and ultimately want to build new Jewish settlements there.
In 2005, Israel dismantled settlements in the Gaza Strip and withdrew its forces from there.
But alongside Egypt, it maintained a tight control of access to the territory.
The new occupation idea comes amid growing international moves to revive the two-state solution – the long-time international formula to resolve the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict. It envisages an independent Palestinian state being created alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Last week, the UK and Canada joined France in announcing conditional plans for recognising a Palestinian state.
The Israeli PM is now expected to meet with key ministers and military leaders to decide next steps in Gaza. Israeli army radio says they are due to discuss initial army plans to surround the central refugee camps and carry out air strikes and ground raids.
Netanyahu said he would convene a full security cabinet meeting this week.
Israeli media commentators have voiced scepticism and drawn attention to the practical military, political and diplomatic challenges. Writing in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Nahum Barnea says: "Netanyahu has never taken a gamble on this scale before."
He notes that the Israeli PM has repeated his vow to achieve all of his war goals.
"But after 22 months of bloody fighting, it is hard to take those kinds of promises seriously. It seems that Netanyahu has just one objective in the war in Gaza, to prolong the war."
Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas's attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken to Gaza as hostages.
At least 61,020 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since then, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, visited aid distribution sites run by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed GHF on Friday. Condemnation of Israel is growing over famine in Gaza and reports that more than 1,000 desperately hungry Palestinians have been killed since May at the GHF sites.
The diplomats “spent over five hours inside Gaza”, Witkoff said in a post on X, accompanied by a photo of himself wearing a protective vest and meeting staff at a distribution site. He added that the purpose of the trip was to “help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza”.

Friday’s visit was “to learn the truth” about the GHF’s distribution activities, Hucakbee said on X. During the trip, they were briefed by the Israeli military and spoke to “folks on the ground”, he added.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that Witkoff would visit “distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground”.
“The special envoy and the ambassador will brief the president immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region,” Leavitt said.

The visit comes a day after more than 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the territory and health officials reported the deaths of two more children from starvation, adding to the Gaza Health Ministry’s confirmed death toll of 154 people who have died from “famine and malnutrition” – including 89 children – in recent weeks.

On Friday, 37 more people were killed across the Strip, including 12 aid seekers, hospital sources said. More than 80 people were also injured, including dozens who were waiting for food supplies near the Morag Corridor south of Khan Younis, according to an Al Jazeera Arabic report.

Witkoff met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after his arrival in the country on Thursday, the Israeli leader’s office said.

Earlier this week, Trump contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza were untrue, with the US leader saying the enclave was experiencing “real starvation”.

The United Nations and independent experts had warned for months that starvation was taking hold in Gaza due to the Israeli military blockade on humanitarian relief, and this week, they said “famine is now unfolding.”

‘War crime’
In a report on Friday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Israel’s use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war a “war crime”.

“Israeli forces are not only deliberately starving Palestinian civilians, but they are now gunning them down almost every day as they desperately seek food for their families,” said Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director at HRW.

“US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarised aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths,” she added.

The rights group called on states to press Israel to immediately stop its use of lethal force against Palestinian civilians and lift its restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza. It also urged the US and Israel to suspend the GHF distribution system.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Friday, Martin Griffiths, the former under-secretary-general of the UN humanitarian affairs office, said GHF’s aid distribution system has turned into a “catastrophe”.

“They are, in fact, under instructions by [the Israeli military]. All of this is a crime. All of this is a deep betrayal of humanitarian values,” said the director of Mediation Group International.

“I think it’s a catastrophe more than a disappointment,” Griffiths added. “I think it’s a great sin. I think it’s a great crime.”

The UN’s rights office in the Palestinian territory said at least 1,373 people had been killed seeking aid in Gaza since May 27 – 105 of them in the last two days of July.

‘Act quickly’ to prevent mass starvation
Angered by Israel’s denial of aid and ongoing attacks on Gaza’s population, the United Kingdom, Canada and Portugal this week became the latest Western governments to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state.

Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said France will recognise Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September, following Spain, Norway and Ireland’s lead.

Some 142 countries out of the 193 members of the UN currently recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state.

Following a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said “the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination.

“Here, the Israeli government must act quickly, safely and effectively to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality,” he said.

On Friday, Wadephul said Germany would provide another $5.7m in aid for the civilian population in Gaza, giving the money to the UN’s World Food Programme.

Germany’s Bundeswehr armed forces started dropping aid supplies over Gaza, starting with two Luftwaffe flights carrying almost 14 tonnes of supplies, according to the German Federal Ministry of Defence. France also started to airdrop 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid.

“Faced with the absolute urgency, we have just conducted a food airdrop operation in Gaza,” President Emmanuel Macron said on social media platform X on Friday. “Airdrops are not enough. Israel must open full humanitarian access to address the risk of famine,” he added.

Once a vibrant centre of Palestinian life, much of Gaza has been pulverised by Israeli bombardments, with more than 60,000 Palestinians killed and almost 150,000 wounded since October 2023, after the Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed an estimated 1,139 people.

The new measures have brought an uptick in the number of aid trucks entering Gaza. But almost none of it reaches U.N. warehouses for distribution.

Instead, nearly all the trucks are stripped of their cargo by crowds that overwhelm them on the roads as they drive from the borders. The crowds are a mix of Palestinians desperate for food and gangs armed with knives, axes or pistols who loot the goods to then hoard or sell.

Many have also been killed trying to grab the aid. Witnesses say Israeli troops often open fire on crowds around the aid trucks, and hospitals have reported hundreds killed or wounded. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots to control crowds or at people who approach its forces. The alternative food distribution system run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has also been marred by violence.
International airdrops of aid have resumed. But aid groups say airdrops deliver only a fraction of what trucks can supply. Also, many parcels have landed in now-inaccessible areas that Palestinians have been told to evacuate, while others have plunged into the Mediterranean Sea, forcing people to swim out to retrieve drenched bags of flour.
Here’s a look at why the aid isn’t being distributed:

A lack of trust
The U.N. says that longstanding restrictions on the entry of aid have created an unpredictable environment, and that while a pause in fighting might allow more aid in, Palestinians are not confident aid will reach them.

“This has resulted in many of our convoys offloaded directly by starving, desperate people as they continue to face deep levels of hunger and are struggling to feed their families,” said Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA.

“The only way to reach a level of confidence is by having a sustained flow of aid over a period of time,” she said.
Israel blocked food entirely from entering Gaza for 2 ½ months starting in March. Since it eased the blockade in late May, it allowed in a trickle of aid trucks for the U.N., about 70 a day on average, according to official Israeli figures. That is far below the 500-600 trucks a day that U.N. agencies say are needed — the amount that entered during a six-week ceasefire earlier this year.

Much of the aid is stacked up just inside the border in Gaza because U.N. trucks could not pick it up. The U.N says that was because of Israeli military restrictions on its movements and because of the lawlessness in Gaza.

Israel has argued that it is allowing sufficient quantities of goods into Gaza and tried to shift the blame to the U.N. “More consistent collection and distribution by U.N. agencies and international organizations = more aid reaching those who need it most in Gaza,” the Israeli military agency in charge of aid coordination, COGAT, said in a statement this week.
With the new measures this week, COGAT, says 220-270 truckloads a day were allowed into Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday, and that the U.N. was able to pick up more trucks, reducing some of the backlog at the border.

Aid missions still face ‘constraints’
Cherevko said there have been “minor improvements” in approvals by the Israeli military for its movements and some “reduced waiting times” for trucks along the road.

But she said the aid missions are “still facing constraints.” Delays of military approval still mean trucks remain idle for long periods, and the military still restricts the routes that the trucks can take onto a single road, which makes it easy for people to know where the trucks are going, U.N officials say.

Antoine Renard, who directs the World Food Program’s operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, said Wednesday that it took nearly 12 hours to bring in 52 trucks on a 10-kilometer (6 mile) route.
“While we’re doing everything that we can to actually respond to the current wave of starvation in Gaza, the conditions that we have are not sufficient to actually make sure that we can break that wave,” he said.

Aid workers say the changes Israel has made in recent days are largely cosmetic. “These are theatrics, token gestures dressed up as progress,” said Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy lead for Israel and the Palestinian territories.
“Of course, a handful of trucks, a few hours of tactical pauses and raining energy bars from the sky is not going to fix irreversible harm done to an entire generation of children that have been starved and malnourished for months now,” she said.
Breakdown of law and order
As desperation mounts, Palestinians are risking their lives to get food, and violence is increasing, say aid workers.

Muhammad Shehada, a political analyst from Gaza who is a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said aid retrieval has turned into the survival of the fittest. “It’s a Darwin dystopia, the strongest survive,” he said.

A truck driver said Wednesday that he has driven food supplies four times from the Zikim crossing on Gaza’s northern border. Every time, he said, crowds a kilometer long (0.6 miles) surrounded his truck and took everything on it after he passed the checkpoint at the edge of the Israeli military-controlled border zones.

He said some were desperate people, while others were armed. He said that on Tuesday, for the first time, some in the crowd threatened him with knives or small arms. He spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his safety.

Ali al-Derbashi, another truck driver, said that during one trip in July armed men shot the tires, stole everything, including the diesel and batteries and beat him. “If people weren’t starving, they wouldn’t resort to this,” he said.

Israel has said it has offered the U.N. armed escorts. The U.N. has refused, saying it can’t be seen to be working with a party to the conflict – and pointing to the reported shootings when Israeli troops are present.
Uncertainty and humiliation
Israel hasn’t given a timeline for how long the measures it implemented this week will continue, heightening uncertainty and urgency among Palestinians to seize the aid before it ends.

Palestinians say the way it’s being distributed, including being dropped from the sky, is inhumane.

“This approach is inappropriate for Palestinians, we are humiliated,” said Rida, a displaced woman.

Momen Abu Etayya said he almost drowned because his son begged him to get aid that fell into the sea during an aid drop.

“I threw myself in the ocean to death just to bring him something,” he said. “I was only able to bring him three biscuit packets”.

___

Associated Press reporters Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Fatma Khaled in Cairo and Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed to this report.

The deaths at aid sites come as international aid agencieswarn of dire hunger in the territory. A global initiative monitoring hunger said this week that a "worst-case scenario of famine" is unfolding in Gaza.

Hospital officials told ABC News that 14 Palestinians were killed near an aid center in Muraj. At another aid center in Netzarim, at least 13 people were killed, local hospitals told ABC News.

MORE: At least 37 killed, 270 injured while seeking aid in northern Gaza: Hospital
Deaths from a single major incident on Wednesday near an aid distribution site near Zikim rose to 58, the health ministry said, increasing the toll from the 37 it published on Wednesday. Another 579 were injured, the health ministry added. Later, the health ministry upped the overall death toll from all aid sites over the past day to 91.

On Thursday, the IDF released a statement on the shooting in Zikim, saying dozens of Gazans were gathered around aid trucks, in close proximity to its troops. According to the statement, IDF troops fired warning shots in the area in response to the threat posed to them. The IDF said it is not aware of any casualties as a result.

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

Israel on Sunday said it was beginning daily 10-hour "tactical pauses" in several densely populated areas to facilitate the movement of aid into the territory.

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have recorded two new deaths in the past 24 hours due to malnutrition, according to the health ministry, bringing the total number to 159 people, including 90 children.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes and gunfire in the Gaza Strip killed at least 46 Palestinians overnight and into Wednesday, most of them among crowds seeking food, health officials said.

Israel has continued to carry out daily strikes as its military offensive and blockade have led to the "worst-case scenario of famine" in the territory of some 2 million Palestinians, according to an international authority on hunger crises.

Ceasefire talks appeared to have stalled again last week, with no end in sight to the nearly 22-month war sparked by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. The Trump administration's Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected in Israel on Thursday, according to a person familiar with his plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they have not yet been made public.

More than 30 people were killed while seeking humanitarian aid, according to hospitals that received the bodies and treated dozens of wounded people. Another seven Palestinians, including a child, died of malnutrition-related causes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The Israeli military didn't immediately comment on any of the strikes. It says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, because the group's militants operate in densely populated areas.

Strikes, and gunfire at aid sites

Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said that it received 12 people who were killed Tuesday night when Israeli forces opened fire towards crowds awaiting aid trucks coming from the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza.

Thirteen others were killed in strikes in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, and the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the hospital said.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, Nasser Hospital said it received the bodies of 16 people who it says were killed Tuesday evening while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly-built Morag corridor, which the Israeli military carved out between Khan Younis and the southernmost city of Rafah.

The hospital received another body for a man killed in a strike on a tent in Khan Younis, it said.

The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp said that it received the bodies of four Palestinians who it says were killed Wednesday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, in the Netzarim corridor area, south of the Wadi Gaza.

Israel has eased its blockade but obstacles remain

Under heavy international pressure, Israel announced a series of measures over the weekend to facilitate the entry of more international aid to Gaza, but aid workers say much more is needed.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, the leading world authority on hunger crises, has stopped short of declaring famine in Gaza but said Tuesday that the situation has dramatically worsened and warned of "widespread death" without immediate action.

COGAT, the Israeli military body that facilitates the entry of aid, said over 220 trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday. That's far below the 500-600 trucks a day that U.N. agencies say are needed, and which entered during a six-week ceasefire earlier this year.

The U.N. is still struggling to deliver the aid that does enter, with most trucks unloaded by crowds in zones controlled by the Israeli military. The alternative aid system run by the Israeli-backed GHF has also been marred by violence.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid since May, most near sites run by GHF, according to witnesses, local health officials and the U.N. human rights office. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding.

International airdrops of aid have also resumed, but many of the parcels have landed in areas that Palestinians have been told to evacuate while others have plunged into the Mediterranean Sea, forcing people to swim out to retrieve drenched bags of flour.

Deaths from malnutrition

A total of 89 children have died of malnutrition since the war began in Gaza. The ministry said that 65 Palestinian adults have also died of malnutrition-related causes across Gaza since late June, when it started counting deaths among adults.

Israel denies there is any starvation in Gaza, rejecting accounts to the contrary from witnesses, U.N. agencies and aid groups, and says the focus on hunger undermines ceasefire efforts.

Hamas started the war with its attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which militants killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others. They still hold 50 hostages, including around 20 believed to be alive. Most of the rest of the hostages were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.

Samy Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.

Donald Trump told Israel to allow “every ounce of food” into Gaza as he acknowledged for the first time that there is “real starvation” in the region.

During a visit to Britain, the US president contradicted Benjamin Netanyahu after the Israeli prime minister claimed it was a “bold-faced lie” to say Israel was causing hunger in Gaza.

Trump is under increasing pressure to intervene in the humanitarian crisis, with dozens of Palestinians having died of hunger in recent weeks in a crisis attributed by the UN and other humanitarian organisations to Israel’s blockade of almost all aid into the territory.

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In meetings with Keir Starmer – including a rambling 70-minute press conference at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland – the president also said he was losing patience with Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine and vowed to impose sanctions on Russia’s trading partners within 10-12 days if there was no ceasefire.

He heaped praise on Starmer, but in a domestic intervention that will not have been appreciated by the British prime minister, Trump urged him to cut taxes and tackle illegal immigration to win the next election.

Starmer privately pressed Trump on Gaza during the trip, government sources said.

The US president told reporters that Israel bore “a lot of responsibility” for the crisis in a rebuke to Netanyahu, who had claimed earlier on Monday that there was “no starvation in Gaza”.

Asked whether he agreed with this assessment, Trump said: “I don’t know. Based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry.”

He later added: “We can save a lot of people, I mean some of those kids. That’s real starvation; I see it and you can’t fake that. So we’re going to be even more involved.”

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Asked what he would ask Netanyahu for next time they spoke, Trump said: “We’re giving money and we’re giving food, but we’re over here … I want him to make sure they get the food. I want to make sure they get the food, every ounce of food.”

Trump criticised Hamas for not releasing the remaining hostages and said the militant group was “very difficult to deal with”, while suggesting he had asked the Israeli government to change its approach. “I told Israel, I told Bibi, that you have to now maybe do it a different way,” he said.

The president was speaking before a bilateral meeting with Starmer, who flew to Ayrshire to meet him on Monday. The two leaders were due to visit Trump’s second golf course in Aberdeenshire and have dinner together on Monday evening.

Trump said he was “very disappointed” with Putin and was “not so interested in talking to him any more” because of his decision to continue airstrikes against civilian targets in Ukraine.

“We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever,” Trump said. “You have bodies lying all over the street, and I say that’s not the way to do it.”

Trump said he would cut his 50-day deadline for a ceasefire to between 10 and 12 days before he imposed secondary sanctions on Russia’s trading partners.

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He piled pressure on Starmer to cut taxes and immigration, calling the prime minister and Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, “good men”.

“I assume there’s a thing going on between you and Nigel and that’s OK,” Trump said. “But generally speaking, the one who cuts taxes the most, the one who gives you the lowest energy prices and the best kind of energy, the one that keeps you out of wars … I think the one that’s toughest and most competent on immigration is going to win the election.”

Speaking alongside Trump, Starmer told the press conference that the British public were “revolted” at the “absolute catastrophe” in Gaza and said there was an urgent need for a ceasefire.

Israel announced over the weekend that it would suspend fighting in three areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day and open secure routes for aid delivery, while the UK confirmed it was working with Jordan to carry out airdrops into the territory.

Starmer is due to convene an emergency cabinet meeting on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza on Tuesday afternoon. Ministers will be presented with a peace plan which the UK is working up alongside France and Germany.

The prime minister is under pressure from senior cabinet ministers and more than 220 MPs to immediately recognise Palestine as a state, after Emmanuel Macron announced that France would do so at the UN general assembly in September. Trump dismissed the idea on Monday but suggested he had no objection to the UK or other allies doing so.

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Trump also said the US and its allies would set up “walk-in” food centres without barriers in the region, though he gave little detail about how these would operate.

On Monday afternoon, about 100 protesters gathered in Balmedie, the closest village to Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf course, waving Palestinian flags and chanting: “You are not welcome here.”

Kay Collin, a retired modern studies teacher, said she had made the trip from Edinburgh because “watching what is happening in Gaza, if it was happening to my grandchildren I would hope other people would stand up for them”.

While many people cited the starvation crisis in Gaza as the most urgent reason for their protest, Trump’s policies on immigration, transgender rights and cuts to international aid, and there were placards and chants accusing him of misogyny and bullying behaviour.

Jenna Harpin, a mother of four from Portsoy, said she was “disgusted” at how much money was being spent by the Scottish and UK governments on hosting Trump’s visit, especially at a time when local councils were making cuts to vital services.

The protesters marched through the village as the police presence swelled in anticipation of Trump’s arrival. Local access had been significantly restricted with lines of police officers blocking off the beach and snipers spotted on the dunes.