Deir al-Balah, Gaza (AP) — Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 45 people, including several women and a week-old infant.
The fresh strikes come as Israel’s war on Hamas shows no signs of relenting, despite a surge in international anger at Israel’s widening offensive.
Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Tuesday, but the aid has not yet reached Palestinians in desperate need, according to aid groups. U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Tuesday evening 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.
Internal notes circulated among aid groups Wednesday and seen by The Associated Press said that no humanitarian trucks had left Kerem Shalom, the border crossing in southern Gaza that is operated by Israel. The notes said 65 trucks moved from the Israel side of the crossing to the Palestinian side, but hadn’t made it into Gaza.
The Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian aid to Gaza said trucks were entering into Gaza on Wednesday morning, but it was unclear if that aid was able to continue into Gaza for distribution. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said they waited several hours to collect aid from the border crossing in order to begin distribution but were unable to do so on Tuesday.
