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PALESTINIANS IN THE Gaza Strip blocked and emptied dozens of lorries, the UN World Food Programme said, as desperation mounts following Israel’s months-long blockade and air strikes.
The WFP said that 77 trucks carrying aid, mostly flour, were stopped by hungry people who took the food before the vehicles were able to reach their destination.
A nearly three-month Israeli blockade on Gaza has pushed the population to the brink of famine.
While the pressure slightly eased in recent days as Israel allowed some aid to enter, organisations said there still is not nearly enough food getting in.
Hamas said on Saturday that it had responded to a US proposal for a temporary ceasefire, which Israeli officials have approved, but details of the response were not immediately known. US President Donald Trump said negotiators were nearing a deal.
A ceasefire would pause the fighting for 60 days, release some of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and much-needed food aid and other assistance, according to Hamas and Egyptian officials.
The WFP said the fear of starvation in Gaza is high despite the food aid that is entering now.
“We need to flood communities with food for the next few days to calm anxieties and rebuild the trust with communities that more food is coming,” said agency said in a statement, adding that it has more than 140,000 metric tons of food — enough to feed Gazans for two months — ready to be brought in.
A witness in the southern city of Khan Younis told The Associated Press that the UN convoy was stopped at a makeshift roadblock and unloaded by thousands of desperate civilians.
Most people carried bags of flour on their backs or heads. He said at one point a forklift was used to offload pallets from the stranded trucks.
The United Nations said earlier this month that Israeli authorities have forced them to use unsecured routes within areas controlled by the Israeli military in the eastern areas of Rafah and Khan Younis, where armed gangs are active.
An internal document shared with aid groups about security incidents, seen by the AP, said there were four incidents of facilities being looted in three days at the end of May, not including the convoy on Saturday.
The UN said it been unable to get enough aid in because of fighting.
On Friday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said it only picked up five truckloads of cargo from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, and the other 60 trucks had to return due to intense hostilities.
A new US and Israeli-backed foundation started operations in Gaza this week, distributing food at several sites in a chaotic rollout.
Israel says the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will eventually replace the aid operation that the UN and others have carried out during nearly 20 months of war. It says the new mechanism is necessary, accusing Hamas of siphoning off large amounts of aid. The UN denies that significant diversion takes place.
The GHF works with armed contractors, which it says are needed to distribute food safely. Aid groups have accused the foundation of militarising aid.
Meanwhile, Israel is continuing its military campaign across Gaza.
The Gaza Health Ministry said that at least 60 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours.
The ministry said three people were killed by Israeli gunfire early Saturday in Rafah; three others were killed — parents and a child — when their car was struck in Gaza City; an Israeli strike hit another car in Gaza City, killing four; and an Israeli strike hit a tent sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, killing six, said Weam Fares, a spokesperson for Nasser Hospital.
On 7 October 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 250 hostages.
Of those taken captive, 58 remain in Gaza but Israel believes 35 are dead and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there are “doubts” about the fate of several others.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 54,000 Gaza residents, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
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