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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel pressed ahead Tuesday with its new military offensive in Gaza despite mounting international criticism, launching airstrikes that health officials said killed at least 85 Palestinians. Israeli officials said they also allowed in dozens more trucks carrying aid.
Experts have warned that many of Gaza’s 2 million residents are at high risk of famine. U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that although the aid has entered Gaza, aid workers were not able to bring it to distribution points where it is most needed, after the Israeli military forced them to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and workers ran out of time.
COGAT, the Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian aid, said five trucks entered Monday and 93 trucks entered Tuesday. But Dujarric said the U.N. confirmed only a few dozen trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday.
The aid included flour for bakeries, food for soup kitchens, baby food and medical supplies. The U.N. humanitarian agency said it is prioritizing baby formula in the first shipments.
But none of that aid actually reached Palestinians, according to the U.N. Dujarric described the new security process for getting aid cleared to warehouses as “long, complex, complicated and dangerous.” COGAT did not immediately comment on the new procedures.
The United Nations humanitarian agency received approval for about 100 trucks to enter Gaza, spokesman Jens Laerke said, which is far less than the 600 that entered daily during the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said dozens are expected to enter each day.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he decided to let in limited aid after pressure from allies, who told him they couldn’t support Israel while devastating images of starvation were coming out of Gaza.
The British government on Tuesday said it was suspending free trade negotiations with Israel and was leveling new sanctions targeting settlements in the occupied West Bank. The move came a day after the U.K, France and Canada condemned Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza and its actions in the West Bank.
“I want to put on record today that we’re horrified by the escalation from Israel,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Parliament.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein called the new sanctions “unjustified and regrettable.”
The U.K. leveled sanctions against three settlers and a number of organizations, including settler leader Daniella Weiss and the movement she heads. In response, Weiss said hundreds of families are ready to build Jewish settlements in Gaza.
Israel launched its new military operation in Gaza over the weekend, saying it aims to return dozens of hostages held by Hamas and destroy the militant group. More than 300 people have been killed in Gaza during the latest onslaught, according to health officials.
Criticism against Israel’s conduct in Gaza also came at home. A leader of center-left politics said Tuesday that Israel was becoming an “outcast among nations” because of the government’s approach to the war.
“A sane country doesn’t engage in fighting against civilians, doesn’t kill babies as a hobby and doesn’t set for itself the goals of expelling a population,” Yair Golan, a retired general and leader of the opposition Democrats party, told Reshet Bet radio.
Netanyahu swiftly slammed Golan’s remarks, calling them “wild incitement” against Israeli soldiers and accusing him of echoing “disgraceful antisemitic blood libels” against the country.
In the latest assaults, two strikes in northern Gaza hit a family home and a school-turned-shelter, killing at least 22 people, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command center and warned civilians ahead of time.
A strike in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed 13 people, and another in the nearby built-up Nuseirat refugee camp killed 15, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Two strikes in Khan Younis killed 10 people, according to Nasser Hospital. Israel said it was targeting militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because the group operates in densely populated areas.
Also on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he was recalling his high-level negotiating team from the Gulf state of Qatar after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain in the Qatari capital of Doha.
