Trucks start moving towards border crossing as Israel airdrops aid on Gaza

Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip: Israel’s military carried out airdrops of aid in Gaza on Sunday and aid trucks have begun moving towards the enclave from Egypt after Israel said it would establish humanitarian corridors for United Nations aid convoys, as international pressure grows on Israel over mounting reports of starvation-related deaths in Gaza.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry also said it would implement “tactical pauses” in its military efforts from Sunday to allow for the aid to be distributed. The military said it would halt activity in Muwasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City from 10am to 8pm every day until further notice. It said it was not operating in those areas, but there have been fighting and strikes in each in recent weeks.

Trucks carrying aid enter Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Sunday.Credit: Getty Images

Israel has created “humanitarian corridors” to help the aid be distributed.Credit: Getty Images

The moves to allow more aid into Gaza follow months of experts’ warnings of famine amid Israeli restrictions on aid. International criticism of Israel, including by close allies, has grown as several hundred Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying to reach food distribution sites.

The Israeli military said the airdrops were to be conducted in co-ordination with international aid organisations and consisted of seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food. Palestinian sources confirmed on Sunday (AEST) that aid had begun dropping in northern Gaza.

It is understood that the United Arab Emirates and Jordan will take over the effort after the initial air drops by Israel.

A truck driver carries aid across the border from Egypt into Gaza on Sunday.Credit: Getty Images

Aid trucks had also started moving towards Gaza from Egypt, the Egyptian state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV said on Sunday.

Dozens of trucks in Egypt carrying tonnes of humanitarian aid moved towards the Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing in southern Gaza, Al Qahera News TV said.

The Israeli military “emphasises that combat operations have not ceased” in Gaza against Hamas, and it asserted there is “no starvation” in the territory, where most of the population of over 2 million has been displaced into a shrinking area with little infrastructure. The majority of people rely on aid.

Israel says it has let enough food into Gaza and accuses the United Nations of failing to distribute it. The United Nations says it is operating as effectively as possible under Israeli restrictions.

Palestinians carry sacks of flour unloaded from a humanitarian aid convoy that reached Gaza City from the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday.Credit: AP

Israel has also accused Hamas of stealing aid, however The New York Times reported on Sunday (AEST) that the Israeli military had never found any proof of it systemically doing so. The Times quoted two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israelis involved in the matter.

Witness accounts from Gaza have been grim. Some health workers are so weakened by hunger that they put themselves on IV drips to keep treating the badly malnourished. Parents have shown their limp and emaciated children. Wounded men have described desperate dashes for aid under gunfire.

It wasn’t clear what role the recently created and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — meant as an alternate to the United Nations aid system — might play. GHF chair Johnnie Moore in a statement said the group stood ready to assist.

Some aid leaders say the air drops will not be enough, however, to meet the needs of Gaza’s population and could prove dangerous. The head of UN Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, said air drops were “expensive, inefficient, and can even kill starving civilians” if they do not go to plan.

Australians on seized vessel

Meanwhile, an activist vessel on which two Australians were on board was also seized by Israeli forces off the coast of Gaza on Sunday morning (AEST).

The Handala set off from Italy last week for Gaza with food and other humanitarian aid supplies but was “violently intercepted by the Israeli military in international waters about forty nautical miles from Gaza”, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said a statement.

“At 11.43 Palestine time, the Occupation cut the cameras on board Handala and we have lost all communication with our ship,” it said in a statement. “The unarmed boat was carrying life-saving supplies when it was boarded by Israeli forces, its passengers abducted, and its cargo seized. The interception occurred in international waters outside Palestinian territorial waters off Gaza, in violation of international maritime law.”

Israeli military personnel take control of the Handala. Credit: Freedom Flotilla Coalition

Livestreamed footage from the boat showed Israeli military personnel on board and crew members sitting down with their hands up.

Australians Robert Martin and Tania “Tan” Safi are among the 21 human rights activists from 12 countries on the boat. Its seizure was confirmed by Israel’s foreign ministry, which said it had been intercepted to prevent it “illegally entering the maritime zone of the coast of Gaza”.

“The vessel is safely making its way to the shores of Israel,” the foreign ministry said. “All passengers are safe.”

Safi posted on social media earlier on Sunday. “Just in case this is my last post for a while, know that I’m OK. Know that Palestinian children in Gaza are not,” she said.

In a later video message, she said: “I’ve been abducted and taken against my will by the Israeli military.

“I appeal to everyone to put pressure on the Australian government to sanction Israel, to stop their participation in Israel’s war crimes, and to demand my release as well as the release of everyone aboard the Handala as soon as possible.”

Another ship on which Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was on board was stopped near Gaza last month and Thunberg was deported by Israel. The Handala was carrying aid including baby formula, diapers, food, and medicine.

At least 53 killed

Israeli airstrikes and gunshots killed at least 53 people in Gaza overnight and into Saturday, most of them shot dead while seeking aid, according to Palestinian health officials and the local ambulance service.

Deadly Israeli gunfire was reported twice close to the Zikim crossing with Israel in the north. In the first incident, at least a dozen people waiting for aid trucks were killed, said staff at Shifa hospital, where bodies were taken. Israel’s military said it fired warning shots to distance a crowd “in response to an immediate threat.”

Palestinians mourn during the funeral of people who were killed while trying to reach aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel.Credit: AP

A witness, Sherif Abu Aisha, said people started running when they saw a light that they thought was from aid trucks, but as they got close, they realised it was Israel’s tanks. That’s when the army started firing, he told The Associated Press. He said his uncle was among those killed.

“We went because there is no food ... and nothing was distributed,” he said.

On Saturday evening, Israeli forces killed at least 11 people and wounded 120 others when they fired towards crowds who tried to get food from an entering UN convoy, Dr Mohamed Abu Selmiyah, director of Shifa hospital, told the AP.

“We are expecting the numbers to surge in the next few hours,” he said. There was no immediate military comment.

AP video showed a group of weary Palestinian men carrying a body along with sacks of flour. They said he was hit by a truck but had no details. “You die to fetch some food for your children,” said one man, Fayez Abu Riyala, thin and sweating.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, Israeli forces shot dead at least nine people trying to get aid entering through the Morag corridor, according to the hospital’s morgue records. There was no immediate military comment.

Elsewhere, those killed in strikes included four people in an apartment building in Gaza City and at least eight, including four children, in the crowded tent camp of Muwasi in Khan Younis, hospitals said.

Turning to airdrops

The airdrops were requested by neighbouring Jordan, and a Jordanian official said they mainly will drop food and milk formula. The United Arab Emirates said airdrops would start “immediately.” Britain said it plans to work with partners to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance.

While Israel’s army has said it allows aid into the enclave with no limit on the trucks that can enter, the UN says it is hampered by military restrictions on its movements and criminal looting. The Hamas-run police had provided security for aid delivery, but it has been unable to operate after being targeted by airstrikes.

Israel on Saturday said more than 250 trucks carrying aid from the UN and other organisations entered Gaza this week. About 600 trucks entered per day during the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March.

Israel faces growing international pressure. More than two dozen Western-aligned countries and over 100 charity and human rights groups have called for an end to the war, harshly criticising Israel’s blockade and a new aid delivery model it has rolled out.

More than 1000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near the new aid sites run by the GHF, an American contractor, the UN human rights office says.

The charities and rights groups said their own staff struggled to get enough food.

Inside Gaza, children with no preexisting conditions have begun to starve to death.

“We only want enough food to end our hunger,” said Wael Shaaban at a charity kitchen in Gaza City as he tried to feed his family of six.

Stalled ceasefire talks

Ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas were at a standstill after the US and Israel recalled negotiating teams on Thursday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday his government was considering “alternative options” to talks. A Hamas official, however, said negotiations were expected to resume next week and called the delegations’ recall a pressure tactic.

Egypt and Qatar, which mediate alongside the United States, said talks would resume but did not say when.

“Our loved ones do not have time for another round of negotiations, and they will not survive another partial deal,” said Zahiro Shahar Mor, nephew of hostage Avraham Munder, one of 50 still in Gaza from Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023, that sparked the war. Mor spoke at a weekly rally in Tel Aviv.

More than 59,700 Palestinians have been killed during the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says that more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organisations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.

AP, Reuters

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