Jerusalem [Israel], May 20: Israel's military and the United Nations have said five UN trucks carrying humanitarian aid were allowed into besieged Gaza via the Kerem Shalom Crossing, the first such delivery in nearly three months.
The UN on Monday called it a "welcome development" but said much more aid is needed to address the humanitarian crisis. Food security experts last week warned of famine.
Israel has kept Gaza under total blockade since March 2, pushing the Palestinian population there into famine. It announced it would allow limited supplies of food into Gaza as it launched an intensified ground offensive, along with heavy ongoing bombardment.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that pressure from allies was behind the move. His office had said Israel would open the way for some food to enter the Gaza Strip following a "recommendation" from the army the previous evening.
The announcement came shortly after the Israeli military launched "extensive ground operations" that are reported to have killed more than 150 people in the last 24 hours.
On Monday, Israel carried out at least 30 air strikes within an hour in the Khan Younis area, killing more than 71 Palestinians across Gaza since dawn, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
"Israel will allow a basic amount of food for the population to ensure that a hunger crisis does not develop in the Gaza Strip," Netanyahu's office said in a statement late on Sunday.
Israel's deliberate blocking of aid is driving up the risk of famine, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned earlier. He said the World Health Organization (WHO) and other United Nations agencies stood ready to deliver aid into Gaza - if and when it is allowed to enter.
"Two months into the latest blockade, two million people are starving," the WHO chief said, speaking at the opening of the annual World Health Assembly, adding that 160,000 metric tonnes of food are "blocked at the border just minutes away".
"People are dying from preventable diseases as medicines wait at the border, while attacks on hospitals deny people care, and deter them from seeking it," he added.
A spokesperson for the UN aid chief, Tom Fletcher, confirmed the agency had been approached by Israel to "resume limited aid delivery", adding that discussions are ongoing about the logistics, "given the conditions on the ground".
Munir al-Bursh, the director-general of Gaza's Ministry of Health, had said Palestinian authorities had not been informed when the border would be opened, Al Jazeera Arabic reported. The Israeli move comes amid mounting international pressure on Israel to lift the siege, now in its third month, that threatens widespread famine in the besieged territory.
Source: Qatar Tribune
