UN has clearance for 100 more aid trucks to enter Gaza, official says

The United Nations has received permission from Israel for about 100 more emergency aid trucks to enter Gaza, though the first supplies to have entered in weeks remained under Israeli control, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

International humanitarian experts have warned of looming famine in the Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people and the growing outcry has pushed Israel to lift an 11-week total blockade on aid supplies.

"We have requested and received approval for more trucks to enter today, many more than were approved yesterday," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office (OCHA) told a Geneva press briefing. Asked to specify how many, he said: "Around 100."

After weeks of blockade, Israel cleared nine trucks of goods on Monday to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing. However, Laerke said just five of those had so far entered Gaza and were still currently "under Israeli control" and subject to the last stage of checks.

"The next step is to collect them, and then they will be distributed through the existing system," said Laerke, adding that those trucks contained baby food and nutritional products for children. "We know for a fact that there are babies in urgent life-saving need of these supplements. And if they do not get those, they will be in mortal danger," he said in response to a question about whether babies' lives were at risk.

United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher previously called the aid deliveries approved so far "a drop in the ocean".

Israel says it plans to intensify military operations against Hamas and to control the whole of Gaza, which has been devastated by an Israeli air and ground war since Hamas' cross-border attack on Israeli communities in October 2023.

Israel has said its blockade is aimed in part at preventing Hamas from diverting and seizing aid supplies. Hamas has denied doing so.

Malnutrition rates in the densely populated territory have risen during the Israeli blockade and could rise exponentially if food shortages continue, a health official at the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said at the same briefing. "I have data until end of April and it shows malnutrition on the rise," said Akihiro Seita, UNRWA Director of Health. "And then the worry is that if the current food shortage continues, it will exponentially increase, and then get beyond our control."