The supply of aid remains critical in Gaza, United Nations agencies have warned, as Israel continues to keep closed key border crossings that are vital to getting food into famine-hit areas.
Israel’s military earlier this week informed the U.N. it would halve the amount of aid expected to enter Gaza due to the slow release of the remains of Israeli hostages, a key point of contention between Hamas and Israel.
The bodies of three hostages were returned to Israel in the last day and the ceasefire continued to hold, however, the United States issued a warning to Hamas should it try to violate the deal with an attack on Palestinians.
The World Food Programme is supplying approximately 560 tons of food every day, its spokesperson, Abeer Etefa, told reporters on Friday. However, the agency is facing challenges in ramping up the quantity, as key crossings remain shut, and in its delivery, due to destroyed roads.
“The first stop is that the Israelis open [these crossings]. It is very important to have these openings in the north,” Jens Larke, spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said Friday. “That is where the famine took hold.”
Etefa said there are only two operational crossings, and none in the north, where the crisis is the most acute.
“We’re still below what we need. But we’re getting there,” she said. “Roads are blocked and destroyed, which is a huge limitation to transport.”
Remains returned to Israel, Gaza
Israel says Hamas is delaying the release of the remaining dead hostages inside Gaza, while Hamas says it will take time to search for and recover bodies buried under rubble.
On Saturday afternoon, Israel said it had received the bodies of two hostages, leaving the bodies of 16 more in the enclave.
The IDF on Sunday identified one set of remains as those of Ronen Tommy Engel. The identity of the second person has not been publicly released.
The IDF earlier said it had received the remains of a hostage later identified as Eliyahu Margalit, 75.
Engel and Margalit, both from Kibbutz Nir Oz, were killed on Oct. 7 and their bodies taken into Gaza, the IDF said.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said Saturday that it had received the bodies of 15 Palestinians released by Israel, some of which it said showed signs of beatings and abuse.
The IDF has not responded to requests for comment from NBC News on the allegation that returned bodies have shown signs of torture.
On Saturday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt would remain closed “until further notice” after earlier plans to reopen it, citing the hostage remains disagreements. The opening "will be considered depending on how Hamas fulfills its part in returning the abductees," his office said in a statement.
Fragile ceasefire
Even as the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel holds, Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces.
Israeli forces killed at least nine people in a bus on Friday, the Gaza Civil Defense agency said in a statement Saturday.
The IDF said its troops had “opened fire” at the vehicle, which had crossed the “yellow line.” The IDF had fired “warning shots” initially, but the vehicle continued its approach in a way “that caused an imminent threat,” it said. “The troops opened fire to remove the threat, in accordance with the agreement,” the IDF added.
That line separates the area Israeli forces still occupy from the areas that it has withdrawn from as part of the ceasefire agreement. On Friday, the Israeli defense minister said the line would be physically marked and warned that any trespassers would be targeted.
The United States is also concerned about reports of Hamas attacking Palestinian civilians, a senior U.S. adviser said this week. The U.S. is working with Israel to create safe zones behind the yellow line for people who feel threatened, the adviser said.
On Saturday, the U.S. Department of State said in a post on social media that there have been “credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza.”
“This planned attack against Palestinian civilians would constitute a direct and grave violation of the ceasefire agreement and undermine the significant progress achieved through mediation efforts,” it said.
More information was not immediately available. The State Department indicated in its statement that efforts would be made to ensure the ceasefire holds “should Hamas proceed with this attack.”
“The United States and the other guarantors remain resolute in our commitment to ensuring the safety of civilians, maintaining calm on the ground, and advancing peace and prosperity for the people of Gaza and the region as a whole,” the statement said.
Keeping up with food demand
Two years of war and Israeli restrictions on aid have pushed the population of Gaza to the brink of starvation, with the world’s leading authority on hunger declaring a famine in August in part of northern Gaza, including Gaza City. Israel allowed very few aid trucks in, and aid began to pile up outside the crossings.
As of Thursday, Israel had allowed some 950 trucks into Gaza, according to figures Israel supplied to mediators, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, told reporters Friday.
The WFP also said it was trying to ramp up food production capacity inside Gaza. Over the past two weeks, nine bakeries in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis have produced a daily average of over 100,000 bread bundles.
However, it said, “The quantity of nutritious food aid entering Gaza is still insufficient to address the severe hunger conditions.”
Tom Fletcher, the U.N.’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, visited bakeries in Gaza on Friday, citing the supply of ingredients and fuel to power bread-making machines as critical factors.
He said in a post on X that work was underway to “quickly rebuild” food production with the aim of opening 30 bakeries and distributing a million meals a day across Gaza. The enclave had a population of 2 million people at the start of the war.
