Overnight, Israel has said it will allow two truckloads of fuel per day into Gaza, following pressure from the US and concern from the UN.
“We will increase the capacity of the humanitarian convoys and trucks as long as there is a need,” Colonel Elad Goren from COGAT, the defence ministry agency that coordinates administrative issues with the Palestinians, said.
His comments appear to signal a shift in tone – after UN agencies warned that humanitarian conditions in Gaza were rapidly deteriorating, including a stark warning from the World Food Programme of the “immediate possibility of starvation”.
The White House said in a post on X that fuel deliveries should “continue on a regular basis and in larger quantities”.
A US State Department official specified around 140,000 litres of fuel would be allowed in every two days, with most of that intended for trucks delivering aid, as well as supporting the UN in providing water and sanitation.
This comes after the UN was forced to suspend aid deliveries yesterday due to shortages of fuel and a communications blackout.
‘Mostly children’ among 26 killed in Khan Younis – report
About 26 Palestinians, mostly children, were killed in Israeli strikes on Khan Younis in southern Gaza early this morning, Reuters quotes the Palestinian news agency WAFA as saying.
The report is unverified.
This comes amid widespread warnings from the Israeli government for people in the city to flee, with reports of leaflets being dropped urging evacuation.
“We’re asking people to relocate. I know it’s not easy for many of them, but we don’t want to see civilians caught up in the crossfire,” Mark Regev, an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC yesterday.
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