Israel says fewer than 100 trucks have crossed since Monday via the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières called the volume “ridiculously inadequate … a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over,” warning that most bakeries and transport firms have yet to receive flour, fuel or other basics.
Mounting foreign and domestic pressure
- Britain has frozen free-trade talks with Israel, while the EU said it would review its broad political-and-economic association agreement, citing the “catastrophic situation” in Gaza.
- London, Paris and Ottawa threatened unspecified “concrete actions” if Israel presses on with the offensive it relaunched in March after a two-month truce.
- At home, left-wing opposition figure Yair Golan drew government fury by saying Israel risked becoming a “pariah state” that “kills babies as a hobby.”
- Pope Leo XIV tweeted on Wednesday that “the situation in the Gaza Strip is increasingly worrying and painful. I renew my heartfelt appeal to allow the entry of dignified humanitarian aid and to bring an end to the hostilities, whose heart-rending price is borne by children, the elderly, and the sick.”
‘Operation Gideon’s Chariots’ grinds on
Palestinian health officials said Israeli air strikes and tank fire killed at least 34 people on Wednesday. The Israel Defense Forces said it had hit 115 targets, including rocket launchers and tunnels, as part of its drive to secure “operational control” of Gaza.
Since the war began with Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault that killed about 1,200 people in Israel and led to 251 hostages being taken, Gaza’s death toll has risen above 53,600, according to local health authorities.
Aid still snarled
Israel originally shut the crossings in March, alleging Hamas theft of relief goods—an accusation the group denies. A U.S.-backed plan to let private contractors handle deliveries has yet to start and has been criticized by aid agencies for lack of clarity.
As the first aid trucks rolled out of Kerem Shalom, Israeli protesters briefly tried to block them, demanding no cargo be allowed in until all hostages are freed.
Humanitarian monitors say severe malnutrition is spreading and warn that a full-scale famine is imminent unless relief shipments increase sharply and rapidly.
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Source: Reuters, BBC, The Guardian