Aid groups: Ready to send in supplies whenever Israel gives its green light | DW News

Now Gaza's Hamas-run health authority says an Israeli airstrike on a school killed at least 20 people sheltering there in the early hours of Monday morning. Israel has been stepping up its military operations in Gaza. Part of what it says is a bid to recover the remaining hostages held there and to destroy Hamas. But the airstrikes and a lack of food has brought Gaza to what aid agencies say is a humanitarian catastrophe. Attempting to grab desperately needed food, Gazans could be seen jumping on aid trucks amid severe shortages in the territory. The WHO has warned that nearly half a million people are facing catastrophic hunger, malnutrition and starvation. At a soup kitchen in Khan Yunis, volunteers say the initiative is the only one left running in the area. But stocks are running low. He says there haven't been any new deliveries for months. There's so little. About a thousand people came and only about 500 got something. Families, including small children, have to wait for hours, hoping to secure a small portion of food before they run out for the day. We come here hungry, lining up from six in the morning. As you can see, the soup kitchen is still overcrowded and trying to provide. Yesterday, we came at six in the morning and we left at 2 p.m. For nearly three months, Israel had stopped all food, medicine and fuel from entering Gaza. Last week, under international pressure, Israel said it would allow limited aid in through its crossing into Rafah. On the Israeli side, trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including flour, oil and canned foods, were seen outside. Aid groups say they're ready to send in supplies whenever Israel gives its green light. We have enough aid to load up to 200 trucks. It's all waiting by the border. It's ready to move in. We are ready to scale up any minute as Norwegian Refugee Council and indeed as a humanitarian community. Israel said it allowed over 100 trucks to cross on Sunday, totaling just under 500 in the week since deliveries resumed. Just a fraction of what is needed, signs of severe malnutrition spread across Gaza. We're going to get more now from DW's Fani Fachar in Jerusalem. Good to see you, Fani. So, international organizations are telling us people in Gaza desperately need more aid. Why is Israel not allowing more aid in? From Israel's perspective, there is no such thing as hunger, let alone a humanitarian crisis in Gaza Strip. In fact, they've claimed, before these few hundred trucks were let into the Strip over the course of the past week, that enough food, enough aid is in the Strip that has gotten into Gaza over the course of those couple of weeks at the beginning of the year when there was a brief period of a ceasefire. They claim that Hamas militants hijack aid that's being let in by independent aid organizations, something that the UN and others have said. There's no proof to show that on a large scale this is really happening. And as we have just heard pointed out there in the report, there are hundreds of trucks there just across the border from Gaza waiting to be let in. Now, what we see and what we are hearing right now is that Israel wants to set up their own U.S.-backed Israeli aid mechanism. And there's been much criticism, even ahead, that this operation is to begin, is to start today, because the way the details are being mapped out is that just a few distribution centers are going to be set up in the south of the Strip and maybe one in the center of Gaza Strip. But obviously that also means that people from the north will be displaced. They need to get to these centers. And as the aid groups have pointed out, the way it is supposed to be that aid gets to the people and not people to the aid. Hence, they are not participating in this and they have made clear that they do not see this Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that is to kickstart today. We just have to see if that really is going to be the case. They do not see this as an independent organization. In fact, just yesterday, on Sunday, the head of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has resigned, saying that he's also criticizing now, in fact, the lack of the independence of this foundation. And Fani, despite the difficult humanitarian situation in Gaza, as you're describing it for us, Israel is intensifying its military operation there. Gaza's Hamas-run media office says that Israel now controls more than three quarters of the Gaza Strip. Do you see Israel pushing to occupy the whole of Gaza? Well, that's what we keep hearing here from the Israeli coalition government. In terms of the tone, even in a much harsher way, from the far-right politicians of the right-wing coalition government. And in fact, the security cabinet earlier this month has made a decision to expand this offensive overall, to essentially occupy and control the entire Strip. Now, why this is happening, why this military offensive is expanding, it is the ordinary citizens, civilians that have to bear the brunt just over the weekend. What we have seen unfold in Khan Younis, but also last night, a school-turned shelter in Gaza City has been hit. At least 20 people have been killed. What we see unfold in the Strip is more and more horror. And of course, we also hear on an international level, more politicians say and call on the war to end. But these words do not have the result on the All right, that's DW's Fani Fachar in Jerusalem for us. Thank you, Fani. A Palestinian doctor whose nine children were killed in an airstrike in Khan Younis is being treated in intensive care. Israel confirmed it conducted an airstrike, but said it was targeting suspects in a building close by to Israeli soldiers. Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar is fighting for his life. He has undergone surgery twice and is now in intensive care. An Israeli airstrike hit Hamdi Al-Najjar's home and destroyed his house. It killed nine of his children. One 11-year-old boy survived. His wife, Alaa Al-Najjar, a pediatrician, was at the hospital at the time of the strike. The area was full of smoke and the bombing was very intense. My entire house collapsed, and my house is on the street behind them, and they're on the main road. I started asking, where's Hamdi? Where are Hamdi's children? My other brother was coming to get me. Then Hamdi's wife told me that her children had died. The Israeli army says it has designated Khan Younis as a war zone, and it issued evacuation warnings earlier last week. It said the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review. Many here in Gaza say Israel's new offensive is having devastating consequences. On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike killed members of this family in the central Gaza city. Once again, children were among those killed. The echoes of suffering are being heard nearby in Israel. These protesters in Tel Aviv are holding pictures of Palestinian children who were killed in the conflict. They're paying their respects to so many innocent victims of this war. I know that these events will be talked about in 40 to 50 years from now, and I want to know that I was on the right side of history. One demonstrator made a direct appeal to the US President Donald Trump. Netanyahu is dragging us deeper into disaster. Please, Mr President, place the Trump deal for ending the war and returning the hostages on the table. Only you can force Netanyahu to sign a deal to end the war and bring our kids home. The war in Gaza must end now. A call that is only intensifying every day.