What aid has entered Gaza – and where is it going?
The first aid trucks have begun entering Gaza after 78 days of Israeli blockade.
The United Nations said nine trucks were given permission to enter on Monday, of which five were actually able to cross into the Gaza Strip.
On Tuesday, the UN said it had received approval for “around 100” more trucks to go into Gaza.
That is still well below the 500 trucks per day that the UN says crossed into the Palestinian territory before the war started in October 2023, and are necessary to meet its needs.
Gaza latest: UK halts trade talks with Israel
The five trucks that entered on Monday remained near the Kerem Shalom crossing overnight, according to the spokesperson for the UN’s aid coordination office OCHA, Jens Laerke.
It is not clear whether they subsequently departed for distribution centres within Gaza, or if more trucks have since entered Gaza.
Sky News understands that Israel has forbidden aid agencies from storing food and medication at warehouses, requiring that all food entering Gaza be taken directly to its final location.
In a video statement, posted to social media on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had decided to allow “minimal” aid into the Gaza Strip because “we cannot reach a point of starvation, for practical and diplomatic reasons”.
What aid is in the trucks?
The UN says that the trucks contain food supplements for babies and young children, who are among the groups most at risk of starvation.
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Gaza: ‘We’re losing children’
Last week, a UN-backed report warned that, if food availability does not improve, 14,100 children aged under five will experience severe acute malnutrition, the most severe form of hunger, over the next year.
At a clinic in central Gaza, one medical worker told Sky News that nearly half of all under-fives attending the centre have acute or severe acute malnutrition – compared to around one in 20 before Israel implemented its total blockade on 2 March.
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Aid in Gaza ‘a drop in the ocean’
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Nahed Abu Eyada, whose primary health clinic in Deir Al Balah screens around 20 young children each day, said that the situation is “very miserable”.
“Before the closure, we had one case per day of acute malnutrition, and one per week of severe malnutrition,” she said. “Now, from 20 children we have 10 acute [cases] and one or two severe [cases].”
The map below shows the location of sites offering nutritional services to vulnerable groups, where the aid might be distributed.
A new aid system is to be implemented next week
From 24 May, however, Israel says that aid distribution will come under the control of private military contractors operating in areas secured by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
Under the new, US-backed system, aid will be distributed from four militarised compounds, three of which are in the far south of the Gaza Strip and one of which is in central Gaza.
In November, the UN estimated that there were around 445,000 people in northern Gaza. In January, following the implementation of a ceasefire, the UN said that an additional 376,000 additional people had moved to the area.
It is unclear how many have since left, but satellite imagery captured on Friday 16 May shows no major reduction in the number of tents in Gaza City compared to late March.
The location of the new aid distribution sites means these people will eventually need to move south to obtain aid.
Israeli authorities have been pressing for Palestinians to evacuate south, issuing several evacuation notices in recent days ordering Palestinians to relocate to Al Mawasi – a crowded, sandy strip of coastline in southern Gaza.
Israel says the plan is intended to prevent Hamas from accessing aid and using this to bolster its rule in Gaza.
OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke dismissed claims that theft of aid was of significant scale and said that the new aid distribution plan “appears to be a deliberate attempt to weaponise the aid”.
“The problem is the blockage of hundreds of aid trucks that should go into the Gaza Strip every single day,” he said.
“That is the root cause of the humanitarian crisis.”
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
Israel’s prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday – despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink.
Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “fairly short timetable” to establish designated “safe zones” for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City.
He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas’s final strongholds there – in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza’s southwestern coast.
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Rare aerial footage shows scale of destruction in Gaza
This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed “subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety”.
Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone.
If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can’t evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go?
Netanyahu’s plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food.
He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation – describing particular photos of starving babies as “fake news”, and accusing the media of painting a false picture.
“The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” the prime minister claimed.
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‘We suffer greatly’: Life in Gaza gets harder
I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating.
Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated.
The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer.
“And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces,” he added. “And very often they didn’t, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line.”
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The danger of aid airdrops revealed
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Gaza: Aid drops ‘killing our children’
This was Israel’s prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza.
It took two questions before he acknowledged there was “deprivation”, even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look.
This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.
World
Defiant Netanyahu sets out plan for military escalation in Gaza – and describes photographs of starving babies as ‘fake news’
Israel’s prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday – despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink.
Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “fairly short timetable” to establish designated “safe zones” for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City.
He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas’s final strongholds there – in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza’s southwestern coast.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Rare aerial footage shows scale of destruction in Gaza
This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed “subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety”.
Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone.
If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can’t evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go?
Netanyahu’s plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food.
He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation – describing particular photos of starving babies as “fake news”, and accusing the media of painting a false picture.
“The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” the prime minister claimed.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘We suffer greatly’: Life in Gaza gets harder
I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating.
Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated.
The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer.
“And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces,” he added. “And very often they didn’t, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line.”
Read more:
Israeli soldier dies by suicide
The danger of aid airdrops revealed
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Gaza: Aid drops ‘killing our children’
This was Israel’s prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza.
It took two questions before he acknowledged there was “deprivation”, even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look.
This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.
World
Journalist killed in Israeli strike feared his own assassination – as IDF claims he was a ‘terrorist’
Five Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza – including a reporter who feared he was going to be assassinated.
Anas al Sharif died alongside four of his colleagues from the network: Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had recently expressed “grave” concerns about al Sharif’s safety, and claimed he was “being targeted by an Israeli military smear campaign”.
Gazan journalist Anas al Sharif with his two children
Israel Defence Forces confirmed the strike – and alleged al Sharif was a “terrorist” who “served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organisation”.
It claimed he was “responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops”.
Last month, the reporter had said he lived with “the feeling that I could be bombed and martyred at any moment” because his coverage of Israel’s operations “harms them and damages their image in the world”.
As of 5 August, at least 186 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza – but foreign reporters have been barred from covering the war independently since the latest conflict began in 2023.
Gazan journalists Anas al Sharif and Mohammad Qreiqe
The Hamas-run government has described Israel’s killing of these five Al Jazeera journalists as “brutal and heinous”.
A statement added: “The assassination was premeditated and deliberate, following a deliberate, direct targeting of the journalists’ tent near al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
“The targeting of journalists and media institutions by Israeli aircraft is a full-fledged war crime aimed at silencing the truth and obliterating the traces of genocidal crimes.”
Read more:
Netanyahu vows to defeat Hamas
UK joins four countries in condemning Israel’s plan for new Gaza operation
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Inside the room with Netanyahu
Following Anas al Sharif’s death, a post described as his “last will and testament” was posted on X.
It read: “If these words of mine reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.”
The 28-year-old added that he laments being able to fulfil his dream of seeing his son and daughter grow up – and alleged he had witnessed children “crushed by thousands of tonnes of Israeli bombs and missiles”.
“Do not forget Gaza … and do not forget me in your prayers for forgiveness and acceptance,” he wrote.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The CPJ reported that his father was killed by an Israeli airstrike on their family home in December 2023 after the journalist received telephone threats from Israeli army officers instructing him to cease coverage.
Israel shut down the Al Jazeera television network in the country in May last year.
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