Food-filled aid convoys arrived in northern Gaza this week, according to Israeli officials on Wednesday. This is the first significant delivery to the beleaguered, remote region in a month, where the United Nations has issued a dire warning about the worsening starvation among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians due to Israel’s offensive.
As the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar attempt to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas for a pause in hostilities and the return of some of the captives abducted by Hamas in its Oct. 7 offensive, the growing concern over hunger throughout Gaza has fanned worldwide calls for a cease-fire. By March 10, when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins, mediators aim to come to a consensus. But, Israel and Hamas haven’t agreed on anything in public yet.
A four-day march by the families of hostages from southern Israel to Jerusalem on Wednesday increased pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a deal and release their loved ones. The march is set to conclude close to Netanyahu’s official residence, and some of the about 100 hostages who were freed during a cease-fire in late November will be participating.
Israelis are greatly troubled by the hostages’ predicament because they view them as an enduring symbol of the state’s inability to defend its people against Hamas’s attack. Over 250 persons, including men, women, children, and elderly people, were kidnapped by the Palestinian terrorist group during its attack on October 7, according to Israeli authorities. There are still about 130 prisoners from the November releases; Israel claims that roughly 25% of them
More than 29,900 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s attack on Gaza, which it claims is intended to eliminate Hamas following its offensive. If it carries out its promises to assault the southern city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have sought safety, U.N. experts fear more widespread casualties. Additionally, they claim that a Rafah offensive might bring down the assistance effort, which is already severely damaged due to the fighting.
According to the U.N., some 576,000 people in Gaza—a quarter of the population—are just one meal away from starvation. Yet famine has ravaged Gaza, especially in the north. When Israeli ground troops landed in late October, the north was cut off and much of it flattened.
A convoy of 31 trucks carrying food entered northern Gaza on Wednesday, according to the Israeli military office overseeing Palestinian civilian affairs, COGAT. Nearly 20 other trucks entered the north on Monday and Tuesday. The UN has been unable to deliver food to northern Gaza since January 23, according to Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA.
The World Food Program attempted a delivery to the north for the first time in three weeks, but much of the convoy’s cargo was taken en route by desperate Palestinians. The UN has called for Israel to open crossings in the north to aid deliveries and guarantee safe corridors for convoys.
The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza said the number of children dying from severe malnutrition and dehydration had risen to four. The Gaza Health Ministry reported a death toll from Israel’s offensive of 29,954 people, with 70,325 wounded.
(AP)
