The UN says 90 trucks are now loading in Gaza after three days of travelling through

Three days after Israel eased its 11-week lockdown, the UN team collected more than 90 trucks of humanitarian aid inside the Gaza Strip.

The aid, including flour, baby food and medical equipment, was taken over from Kerem Shalom Crossing on Wednesday night and brought to a warehouse for distribution. Several bakeries began producing bread with flour on Thursday.

The UN said the delay was due to the lack of security in a single access route approved by the Israeli military.

Israeli authorities said they allowed another 100 truck loads through Kerem Shalom on Wednesday. However, the United Nations said it was “far from enough to meet the huge demand in Gaza”.

The United Nations said about 500 trucks entered the territory on average every day before the war.

Humanitarian groups warn of shortages of basic food and soaring prices, eager hunger levels, among the 2.1 million people.

According to Reuters News, 29 children and elderly people have died of “hunger-related” causes, according to Reuters News.

A million people face hunger in the coming months, an assessment of the Integrated Food Security Stage Classification (IPC) said.

The United Nations and its partners have more than 140,000 tons of food – a load of about 6,000 trucks, enough to feed the entire population in the AIDS corridor for two months and are ready to bring it to Gaza on a large scale.

Israel stopped all delivery of aid and commercial supplies on March 2 and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

It said the steps were designed to put pressure on armed groups to release 58 hostages still in Gaza, with as many as 23 of them believed to be alive.

Israel insists there is no shortage of aid and accuses Hamas of stealing supplies to donate to fighter jets or selling them to raise funds – an allegation the group denies. The United Nations also denied that aid has been transferred.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated the statement on Thursday, saying in a statement: “I told President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Stemmer: Thank you as a mass murderer, rapist, baby killer and kidnapper, thank you, you are in justice.”

Netanyahu said leaders in France, Canada and the United Kingdom “have accepted Hamas’ propaganda that Israel is starving Palestinian children.”

He reiterated that Israel and the United States will bypass the United Nations and other aid suppliers through U.S. companies in Gaza.

Netanyahu has previously said he allowed limited food so the Israeli military can continue its newly expanded ground offensive and take full control of the Palestinian territory.

Construction of the first distribution zone in the plan will be completed in the next few days, he said Thursday.

The United Nations and other agencies said they would not work with the U.S.-Israel program, saying it contradicts basic humanitarian principles and appears to be “weapon aid.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it brought a truck of medical supplies to the Red Cross Hospital in the southern city of Rafa, but needed more.

“There is insufficient popularity of trucks. Only rapid, unhindered and continuous flow of aid can start to meet the full range of demand on the ground,” it said.

Mandy Blackman, a nurse who runs the MED Field Hospital in the UK, a charity in Al-Mawasi, described the situation in Gaza as “heartbreaking” and under-risk of food.

She told the BBC that patients arriving at the hospital were “significantly thinner” than when staff were able to serve them one meal a day, including rice and some beans during her first two tenures.

“People have to keep relocating and can’t feed their children.

Before Gaza aid entered Gaza, senior U.S. Nationalist official Antoine Renard told the BBC that problems gathering it arose because the Israeli military wanted trucks to travel along an aid agency that was considered dangerous.

He said the route could put them at risk of being attacked by desperately hungry civilians and armed criminal gangs.

“At the market price in Gaza, each truck filled with flour is worth about $400,000 (£298,000).”

The solution would be “hundreds of trucks per day” along a safe route to the warehouse, he added, noting that “the less we offer, the greater the risk and the more anxiety we cause”.

Mr Reinard said the aid agency in Gaza did not hire armed guards to accompany the cargo because it was considered too dangerous and therefore a long ceasefire and an extension of the current five-day food transfer window was urgently needed.

According to Renard, recruiting at least 100 aid trucks a day can only meet the “minimum” of the population's food needs.

Meanwhile, Israeli bombing and ground operations are continuing throughout Gaza, with Hamas Health’s Ministry on Thursday reporting 107 people killed in the first 24 hours.

At least 52 people have been killed since dawn Thursday, according to a civil defense agency operated by Hamas. Palestinian media reported that they included 16 people, most of whom were members of a large family, died when they were attacked in Jabalia, northern Gaza.

The Israeli military issued evacuation orders to Jabalia and 13 other northern communities on Thursday, warning residents that “it is “exercising strong force in your area” as terrorist organizations continue their activities and operations.

According to the United Nations, about 81% of territory is now either bound by Israel’s evacuation orders or located in a militarized “no movement” area.

Since March, an estimated nearly 600,000 people have been displaced again, including 161,000 people who have been forced to flee in the past week.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza on October 7, 2023 in response to Hamas' cross-border attacks, in which about 1,200 people were killed and another 251 were taken hostage.

According to the region's Ministry of Health, at least 53,762 people have been killed in Gaza since it was in Gaza.