90 truckloads of aid picked up in Gaza after delays at crossing with Israel
Aid groups have collected food and medicine, but face challenges getting it to the people
United Nations teams in Gaza have collected 90 truckloads of humanitarian aid after delays at the crossing with Israel kept the supplies in limbo for days.
Under international pressure, Israel stopped blocking all food, medicine, fuel and other material on Monday after nearly three months.
Nearly 200 trucks have entered the enclave in the days since, but many supplies have been sitting on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing.
On Wednesday, Antoine Renard, country director of the World Food Programme, said none of the aid had yet made it to the Gazan people.
Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the U.N. Humanitarian agency OCHA, said on Thursday the trucks that entered carried medicine, wheat flour and nutrition supplies.
Aid groups faced significant challenges distributing the aid because of insecurity, the risk of looting and coordination issues with Israeli authorities, Mr Laerke added.
The BBC reported it had seen videos of lorries driving in a convoy from Kerem Shalom with the aid on board.
Another video seen by the BBC showed bags of flour being unloaded at a bakery.
The aid now entering Gaza is a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated 600 trucks per day that entered during a ceasefire earlier this year.
On Wednesday morning, several Israeli activists attempted to block trucks carrying supplies from entering the enclave.
Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV used his first Wednesday general audience in St Peter’s Square to appeal to Israel to allow more aid to enter Gaza.
“The situation in the Gaza Strip is increasingly worrying and painful,” he said.
“I renew my heartfelt appeal to allow the entry of dignified humanitarian aid and to put an end to the hostilities, the heart-rending price of which is being paid by children, the elderly and the sick.”
Before the blockade was lifted, food security experts said that the Gaza Strip was at critical risk of outright famine.
Nearly a half million Palestinians are in “catastrophic” levels of hunger, meaning they face possible starvation, while another million are at “emergency” levels of hunger, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises, said.
Additional reporting from AP