DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (news agencies) — Israel pressed ahead Tuesday with its new military offensive in Gaza despite mounting international criticism, launching airstrikes that health officials said killed at least 85 Palestinians. Israeli officials said they also allowed in dozens more trucks carrying aid.
Two days after aid began entering Gaza, the desperately needed new supplies have not yet reached people in Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade for nearly three months, according to the United Nations. Experts have warned that many of Gaza’s 2 million residents are at high risk of famine.
Under pressure, Israel agreed this week to allow a “minimal” amount of aid into the Palestinian territory after preventing the entry of food, medicine and fuel in an attempt to pressure the Hamas militant group. U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that although the aid has entered Gaza, aid workers were not able to bring it to distribution points where it is most needed, after the Israeli military forced them to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and workers ran out of time.
COGAT, the Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian aid, said five trucks entered Monday and 93 trucks entered Tuesday. But Dujarric said the U.N. confirmed only a few dozen trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday.
The aid included flour for bakeries, food for soup kitchens, baby food and medical supplies. The U.N. humanitarian agency said it is prioritizing baby formula in the first shipments.
But none of that aid actually reached Palestinians, according to the U.N. Dujarric described the new security process for getting aid cleared to warehouses as “long, complex, complicated and dangerous.” He said Israeli military requirements for aid workers to unload and reload the trucks are hindering efforts to distribute the aid. COGAT did not immediately comment on the new procedures.
The United Nations humanitarian agency received approval for about 100 trucks to enter Gaza, spokesman Jens Laerke said, which is far less than the 600 that entered daily during the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said dozens are expected to enter each day.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he decided to let in limited aid after pressure from allies, who told him they couldn’t support Israel while devastating images of starvation were coming out of Gaza.
But some close allies say the limited aid is not enough.
The British government on Tuesday said it was suspending free trade negotiations with Israel and was leveling new sanctions targeting settlements in the occupied West Bank. The move came a day after the U.K, France and Canada condemned Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza and its actions in the West Bank and threatened to take action.
“I want to put on record today that we’re horrified by the escalation from Israel,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Parliament.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein called the new sanctions “unjustified and regrettable” and claimed Israel and the U.K. had not been talking about free trade.
The U.K. leveled sanctions against three settlers and a number of organizations, including settler leader Daniella Weiss and the movement she heads. In response, Weiss said hundreds of families are ready to build Jewish settlements in Gaza.
Israel launched its new military operation in Gaza over the weekend, saying it aims to return dozens of hostages held by Hamas and destroy the militant group. More than 300 people have been killed in Gaza during the latest onslaught, according to health officials.
Criticism against Israel’s conduct in Gaza also came at home. A leader of center-left politics said Tuesday that Israel was becoming an “outcast among nations” because of the government’s approach to the war.
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