Israel says it will 'flood' Gaza with aid hours after striking food centre
Israel's military has said it plans to "flood" Gaza with aid hours after a United Nations food distribution site was bombed by its forces.
Five people were killed in the strike, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said, including one staff member from the agency.
“Today’s attack on one of the very few remaining UNRWA distribution centers in the Gaza Strip comes as food supplies are running out, hunger is widespread and, in some areas, turning into famine,’’ UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.
“Since this war began, attacks against UN facilities, convoys and personnel have become commonplace in blatant disregard to international humanitarian law,” he added.
On Wednesday, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that Israel is making attempts to provide the area with supplies.
"We are trying to flood the area ... with humanitarian aid," he told reporters.
Israel has accused 12 of UNRWA’s thousands of employees of participating in the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Last week, it escalated the accusations, alleging 450 UNRWA employees were members of militant groups in Gaza, though it has provided no evidence.
There have been several instances of Israel delivering aid to the area, but not without controversy. More than 100 people were killed when IDF troops opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for aid on February 29.
Military officials said the convoy of 30 trucks driving to northern Gaza were met by huge crowds of people trying to grab the aid they were carrying.
There have been multiple international attempts to bring aid into the war-torn region.
On Tuesday a ship due to deliver 200 tonnes of food to Gaza finally left port in Cyprus after days of delays, while the US carried out its first air drop of food and aid on March 2.
The ship is expected to arrive in the territory on Thursday, though the location has not been disclosed.
The pallets amounted to 66 bundles containing around 38,000 meals.
The UN used a new land route on Tuesday to deliver food to northern Gaza for the first time in three weeks. The delivery included enough food for 25,000 people, World Food Programme spokesperson Shaza Moghraby told Reuters.
"We are hoping to scale up, we need access to be regular and consistent especially with people in northern Gaza on the brink of famine," Ms Moghraby said. "We need entry points directly to the north."
Supplies are desperately needed in Gaza, where a quarter of the population, or around 576,000 people, are on the verge of famine, according to UN officials.
Children and newborns are feeling the fatal impacts of the reduced access to food, water and health services.
One paediatric doctor at Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh, told ITV News he had witnessed the death of 15 babies and children as a result of malnutrition and dehydration over the course of just one week.
He told ITV News that 17 more children, who have been admitted in the pediatric intensive care unit, were on the brink of death.
A World Health Organisation (WHO) team visiting the hospital at the weekend corroborated the dire conditions, saying the lack of food resulted in the deaths of 10 children at the hospital.
Elsewhere, Israeli authorities have said they will soon begin to direct the majority of the estimated 1.4 million displaced Palestinians in Rafah towards "humanitarian islands" in the centre of the Gaza Strip.
The development comes ahead of Israel's planned military offensive into the city, which the IDF says is needed to achieve its goal of eliminating Hamas.
A continuation of the fighting has erased hopes of a ceasefire in time for the start of the holy month of Ramadan.
At least 31,184 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
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