Gaza faces the threat of famine. How children starve.

File photo Displaced Palestinian children gather to receive food at a government school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 19, 2024, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas.(AFP)
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Updated 24 June 2024
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Gaza faces the threat of famine. How children starve.

  • One in three children in northern Gaza are acutely malnourished or suffering from wasting

Nearly 166 million people worldwide are estimated to need urgent action against hunger, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global partnership which measures food insecurity.
That includes nearly everyone in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military launched an offensive in October following an attack on Israel by Hamas militants. More than one million of Gaza’s inhabitants face the most extreme form of malnutrition – classified by the IPC as ‘Catastrophe or Famine.’
Seven-month-old Majd Salem is one of them.
Born on Nov. 1, three weeks after Israel launched the offensive, the child was being treated for a chest infection in the neonatal ICU at Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza on May 9. The nurse caring for him said he was suffering from severe malnutrition.
Majd was born at a healthy weight of 3.5 kg (7.7 pounds), said his mother, Nisreen Al-Khateeb.
By May, when he was six months old, his weight had barely changed to 3.8 kg, she said – around 3 kg less than would be expected for a baby his age.
Majd, whose eyes keenly followed visiting reporters in the ward, had to be given antibiotics for the infection and fortified milk to boost his weight, his mother said. Reuters was unable to trace them after May 21, when the hospital was evacuated following an Israeli raid.
One in three children in northern Gaza are acutely malnourished or suffering from wasting, according to the UN children’s agency UNICEF, citing data from its partners on the ground. Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run government media office, said their records showed 33 people had died of malnutrition in Gaza including 29 children, but added that the number could be higher.
COGAT, an Israeli defense ministry agency tasked with coordinating aid deliveries into Palestinian territories, did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Israel’s foreign ministry in late May issued a detailed statement questioning the IPC’s methods of analysis, which it said omitted measures Israel had taken to improve access to food in Gaza. The IPC declined to comment.
The plight of Gaza’s children is part of a bigger trend. Globally last year more than 36 million children under 5 were acutely malnourished, nearly 10 million of them severely, according to the Global Report on Food Crises, a collaborative analysis of food insecurity by 16 international organizations.
The food shortage in Gaza, while particularly widespread, comes amid a broader spike in extreme hunger as conflicts around the world intensify.
Two other countries – South Sudan and Mali – each have thousands of people living in zones listed on the IPC website as facing famine. Another 35 – including Sudan, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo – have many people in the IPC’s next-most acute category of food deprivation.
The IPC, a grouping of United Nations agencies, national governments and non-governmental organizations, is expected to update its assessment of the picture in war-torn Sudan in coming weeks. A preliminary projection reported by Reuters earlier this month said as many as 756,000 people in Sudan could face catastrophic food shortages by September.
Gaza’s hunger crisis is also a product of war. The Israeli military invaded the Strip in response to the Oct. 7 cross-border assault by Hamas on Israel. More than 37,000 Palestinians and nearly 1,500 Israelis have been killed since then, Gazan and Israeli tallies show.
The Israeli assault has destroyed swathes of Gazan farmland. In the early days of the war, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza. It later allowed some humanitarian supplies to enter but is still facing international calls to let in more.
The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, in seeking arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, last month accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, among other alleged crimes. Netanyahu, calling that move “a moral outrage of historic proportions,” said Israel is fighting in full compliance with international law and taking unprecedented measures to ensure aid reaches those in need.
Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid, which Hamas strongly denies. Israel has also said any distribution problems within Gaza are the fault of the international agencies.
Even when children survive, nutrition experts say food deprivation in the early years can do lasting damage.
A child’s brain develops at its fastest rate in the first two years of life. So even if they don’t starve to death or die from illness due to their weakened immune system, children may face delays in growth and development, said Aashima Garg, adviser on nutrition at UNICEF for the Middle East and North Africa.
“While they may be alive, they may not thrive that well in childhood and beyond,” she said.
Three families in Gaza told Reuters about their day-to-day diets, and four global health experts explained how such deprivation affects the growing body. Damage done in weeks manifests over years, they said.
“It can have a long-term impact on their immune system, their ability to absorb good nutrition, and on their cognitive and physical development,” said Hannah Stephenson, global head of nutrition and health at Save The Children, a non-profit.
FIRST DAYS
Gaza has the most households globally in the most extreme stage of food poverty, according to the IPC, which classifies levels of hunger in five categories, the worst of which is famine.
Households in North Gaza, where Majd lives, are already suffering a full-blown famine, Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, said on May 5.
It can take months for the international measurement system to declare a famine. But the first damage to a child’s body is counted in days.
Nine out of 10 children aged 6 months to 2 years in Gaza live in severe child food poverty, a UNICEF survey in late May found. This means they are eating from two or fewer food groups a day, which UNICEF’s Garg said means grains or some form of milk.
This has been the case since December 2023, with only a slight improvement in April 2024, she said. As many as 85 percent of children of all ages did not eat for a whole day at least once in the three days before the survey was conducted.
The main cause of acute malnutrition in North Gaza is a lack of diversity in the diets of children and pregnant and breastfeeding women, according to a report in February 2024 from the Global Nutrition Cluster, a group of humanitarian agencies led by UNICEF.
This deficient intake, both prior to and during pregnancy and breastfeeding, harms both mothers and infants.
Abed Abu Mustafa, 49, a father of six, was still living in Gaza City in early April. He said people there already had eaten “almost every green plant we could find” and he hadn’t had meat or chicken for at least five months.
In Rafah in the south, Mariam, 33, a mother of five, has been living in a school along with two dozen of her relatives. She described a typical meal for her family before the conflict and what they are currently eating, shown below.
Before the war, Majd’s mother said an average family meal consisted of rice with chicken or meat, along with vegetables such as okra, cauliflower or peas. During the war, flour scarcity forced the family to make bread from animal feed. Recently, bread and canned goods like tuna and beans started to reappear, but these are not widely available.
Unable to find food to feed herself and forced to flee Israeli bombardment early in the war, Khateeb said she had found great difficulty in breastfeeding Majd.
She said she could find neither good quality baby formula nor clean water to mix it, so she fed him various types of powdered feed mixed with rainwater or brackish water from Gaza’s polluted wells, causing diarrhea.
“There is no chance to get proper food to have breastmilk, there is no meat, no proteins, no calcium, none of the elements that produce good milk for the child,” she said.
Garg, the UNICEF adviser, said the nutrition of breastfeeding mothers in Gaza was severely compromised, and with it their ability to produce milk.
“They are not eating fruits and vegetables. They are not eating meat. They are not having much milk,” she said. This lack of nutrients translates into poor quality breast milk. Diluted formula is not safe and risks diarrhea, which itself can be deadly.
Moderately malnourished mothers can still breastfeed, with their bodies effectively sacrificing their own nutritional needs to save the child. But severely malnourished women struggle.
Ahmed Al-Kahlout, the nurse who heads the unit, said Majd’s infection was due to malnutrition.
“There is no immunity, so any disease that the child catches in the shelters … afflicts the child with these severe lung infections,” he said.
Susceptibility to infections typically increases after two weeks with insufficient food.
The body’s consumption of its fat reserves eats away muscle tissue, which is why aid workers in the field use basic tape measures to assess the gravity of children’s conditions.
The tapes measuring Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) have been used for decades. If the upper arm’s circumference is 11.5 cm (4 1/2 inches) or smaller for a child between 6 months and 5 years old, the child is assessed as having severe acute malnutrition, according to standards drawn up by the United Nations.
MUAC screening data across Gaza since mid-January found more than 7,000 children aged 6 months to about 5 years were already acutely malnourished as of May 26, the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said.
This is how that looks.
Gaza has the most people at risk of starvation, but according to the IPC classifications, many millions are one step behind the enclave in food poverty.
The IPC categorizes the severity and scale of food insecurity and malnutrition. Readings of 3, 4 or 5 on the five-category scale require urgent action.
Households in Phase 3 are in “Crisis,” the IPC says. They have high or more than usual acute malnutrition, or can meet their minimum food needs but only by selling assets or through crisis measures.
Phase 4 is an “Emergency.” Households have either “very high” acute malnutrition and death rates or are only able to make up for the lack of food by taking emergency measures and selling assets.
Phase 5 is “Catastrophe” or “Famine.” Households have an extreme lack of food and/or other basic needs and starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident. An entire area is only classified as in Famine if high food insecurity comes with certain levels of acute malnutrition and mortality.
For the IPC, areas in Famine meet at least two of the following three criteria: * the area has at least 20 percent of households facing an extreme lack of food, * About one in three children there suffer from acute malnutrition, * Two adults or four children out of every 10,000 die each day due to outright starvation, or to the interaction of malnutrition and disease.

The IPC report issued in March projected that the entire population of the Gaza Strip would fall into Phases 3 to 5 between March and July. UN officials told Reuters they expect the next IPC analysis on Gaza to be released on June 25.
South Sudan and Mali are the other two other countries with households projected to fall into the same Phase 5 category as Gaza, based on the IPC’s latest published analyzes.
Overall, the three countries with the largest numbers of people at Phase 3 and above are Nigeria (25 million), Democratic Republic of Congo (23.4 million) and Sudan (17.7 million), according to the IPC website.
The IPC said its latest analysis of Sudan, conducted in December, was too outdated to include in the tables Reuters used for this chart.
As a consequence of severe malnutrition, various complications arise.
This is the impact of starvation after just three weeks. Like many children in Gaza, Majd’s lack of adequate food dates back months.


Netanyahu accuses France, Britain and Canada of ‘emboldening’ Hamas

Updated 23 May 2025
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Netanyahu accuses France, Britain and Canada of ‘emboldening’ Hamas

  • France dismisses Israeli leader's accusations and said there needs to be a lasting peace solution for Israel and and Palestine
  • Israel fears more European countries will officially recognize a Palestinian state

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the leaders of France, Britain and Canada of wanting to help the Palestinian militant group Hamas after they threatened to take “concrete action” if Israel did not stop its latest offensive in Gaza.

The criticism, echoing similar remarks from Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday, was part of a fightback by the Israeli government against the increasingly heavy international pressure on it over the war in Gaza.

“You’re on the wrong side of humanity and you’re on the wrong side of history,” Netanyahu said.

The Israeli leader, facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in Gaza, has regularly criticized European countries as well as global institutions from the United Nations to the International Court of Justice over what he says is their bias against Israel.

But as the flow of images of destruction and hunger in Gaza has continued, fueling protests in countries around the world, Israel has struggled to turn international opinion, which has increasingly shifted against it.

“It’s hard to convince at least some people, definitely on the far left in the US and in some countries in Europe, that what Israel is doing is a war of defense,” said former Israeli diplomat Yaki Dayan.

“But this is how it is perceived in Israel and bridging this gap is sometimes an impossible mission,” he said.

Israeli officials have been particularly concerned about growing calls for other countries in Europe to follow the example of Spain and Ireland in recognizing a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution to resolve decades of conflict in the region.

Netanyahu argues that a Palestinian state would threaten Israel and he has framed the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington on Tuesday by a man who allegedly shouted “Free Palestine” as a clear example of that threat.

He said “exactly the same chant” was heard during the attack on Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

“They don’t want a Palestinian state. They want to destroy the Jewish state,” he said in a statement on the social media platform X.

“I could never understand how this simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others,” he said, adding that any moves by Western countries to recognize a Palestinian state would “reward these murderers with the ultimate prize.”

Instead of advancing peace, the three leaders were “emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever,” he said.

The Israeli leader, whose government depends on far-right support, said Hamas, which issued a statement welcoming the move, had thanked French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canada’s Mark Carney over what he said was their demand for an immediate end to the war.

The leaders’ statement on Monday did not demand an immediate end to the war, but a halt to Israel’s new military offensive on Gaza and a lifting of its restrictions on humanitarian aid. Israel had prevented aid from entering Gaza since March, before relaxing its blockade this week.

“By issuing their demand – replete with a threat of sanctions against Israel, against Israel, not Hamas – these three leaders effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power,” Netanyahu said.

“And they give them hope to establish a second Palestinian state from which Hamas will again seek to destroy the Jewish state.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said France, which like Britain and Canada designates Hamas as a terrorist organization, was “unwaveringly committed to Israel’s security” but he said it was “absurd and slanderous” to accuse supporters of a two-state solution of encouraging antisemitism or Hamas.

French government spokesperson Sophie Primas said France did not accept Netanyahu’s accusations, adding: “We need to de-escalate this rising tension between our two states and work to find lasting peace solutions, for Israel and for Palestine.”

Asked about Netanyahu’s remarks, Britain’s armed forces minister Luke Pollard said London stood with Israel in their right to self-defense. “But that self-defense must be conducted within the bounds of international humanitarian law,” he said.

“At this moment, we stand fast against terrorism, but we also want to make sure that the aid is getting into Gaza,” Pollard told Times Radio.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza was launched in retaliation for the October 7, 2023 attack, which killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken as hostage into Gaza. It has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians and devastated the enclave, where wide areas have been reduced to rubble.


Lebanon government source: disarming Palestinian camps to start mid-June

Updated 17 min 10 sec ago
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Lebanon government source: disarming Palestinian camps to start mid-June

  • The Lebanese and Palestinian sides agreed on starting a plan “to remove weapons from the camps, beginning mid-June,” the source told AFP
  • By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army stays out of the Palestinian camps

BEIRUT: The disarmament of Palestinian camps in Lebanon will begin next month based on an accord with visiting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, a Lebanese government official told AFP on Friday.

The Lebanese and Palestinian sides agreed on starting a plan “to remove weapons from the camps, beginning mid-June in the Beirut camps, and other camps will follow,” the source told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.

By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army stays out of the Palestinian camps — where Abbas’s Fatah movement, militant group Hamas and other armed groups are present — and leaves the factions to handle security.

Abbas has been in Beirut since Wednesday for talks on disarming the Palestinian refugee camps as Lebanon seeks to impose its authority on all its territory.

The deal came during the first meeting of a joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee announced Wednesday to follow up on the situation in the camps.

The meeting was also attended by Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

A statement from the committee released by the premier’s office said it agreed to “launch the process of handing over weapons according to a specific timetable, accompanied by practical steps to bolster the economic and social rights of Palestinian refugees.”

Lebanon hosts about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations agency UNRWA, many living in 12 overcrowded official camps.

Most are descendants of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their land during the creation of Israel in 1948.

They face a variety of legal restrictions in Lebanon, including on employment.


Palestinian faction chiefs quit Damascus amid pressure: faction sources

Updated 36 min 57 sec ago
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Palestinian faction chiefs quit Damascus amid pressure: faction sources

DAMASCUS: Two Palestinian sources told AFP Friday the leaders of pro-Iran Palestinian factions who were close to former Tehran-backed ruler Bashar Assad have left Syria under pressure from the new authorities.

The factions, which enjoyed considerable freedom of movement under Assad, have also handed over their weapons, one of the sources said, amid US demands that Syria’s new authorities take steps against Iran-backed Palestinian groups based in the country.

A pro-Iran Palestinian factional leader who left after Assad’s December ouster said on condition of anonymity that “most of the Palestinian factional leadership that received support from Tehran has left Damascus,” while another still based there confirmed the development.

“The factions have fully handed over weapons in their headquarters or with their cadres” to the authorities, who also received “lists of names of faction members possessing individual weapons” and demanded that those arms be handed over, the first added.

A third Palestinian source from a small faction in Damascus confirmed the arms handover.

Those who have left include Khaled Jibril, son of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) founder Ahmad Jibril, as well as Palestinian Popular Struggle Front secretary-general Khaled Abdel Majid and Fatah Al-Intifada secretary-general Ziad Al-Saghir.

Washington, which considers several Palestinian factions to be “terrorist” organizations, last week announced it was lifting sanctions on Syria after earlier saying Damascus needed to respond to demands including suppressing “terrorism” and preventing “Iran and its proxies from exploiting Syrian territory.”

According to the White House, during a meeting in Saudi Arabia last week, US President Donald Trump gave new Syrian leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa a list of demands that included deporting “Palestinian terrorists.”

The first Palestinian factional leader said the chiefs joined up with groups from Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen that are also part of the Iran-backed “Axis of Resistance” against Israel.

A number of Iran-backed groups fought alongside Assad’s forces after civil war erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Sharaa’s Islamist group led the offensive that ousted Assad, a close ally of Iran, in December.

The factions “did not receive any official request from the authorities to leave Syrian territory” but instead faced restrictions and property confiscations, the first Palestinian factional leader said, noting that some factions “were de facto prohibited from operating” or their members were arrested.

The new authorities have seized property from “private homes, offices, vehicles and military training camps in the Damascus countryside and other provinces,” he said.

The Syrian authorities did not immediately provide comment to AFP when asked about the matter.


Hezbollah seeks boost in Lebanon vote as disarmament calls grow

Updated 23 May 2025
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Hezbollah seeks boost in Lebanon vote as disarmament calls grow

  • Iran-backed Lebanese militant group aims to maintain political sway after pounding in war with Israel
  • Reconstruction aid for Lebanon tied to Hezbollah disarmament, foreign minister says

NABATIEH: Amid the rubble left by Israeli bombardment of south Lebanon, campaign posters urge support for Hezbollah in elections on Saturday as the group aims to show it retains political clout despite the pounding it took in last year’s war.
For Hezbollah, the local vote is more important than ever, coinciding with mounting calls for its disarmament and continued Israeli airstrikes, and as many of its Shiite Muslim constituents still suffer the repercussions of the conflict.
Three rounds of voting already held this month have gone well for the Iran-backed group. In the south, many races won’t be contested, handing Hezbollah and its allies early wins.
“We will vote with blood,” said Ali Tabaja, 21, indicating loyalty to Hezbollah. He’ll be voting in the city of Nabatieh rather than his village of Adaisseh because it is destroyed.
“It’s a desert,” he said.
The south’s rubble-strewn landscape reflects the devastating impact of the war, which began when Hezbollah opened fire in support of Hamas at the start in October 2023 of the Gaza conflict and culminated in a major Israeli offensive.
Hezbollah emerged a shadow of its former self, with its leaders and thousands of its fighters killed, its influence over the Lebanese state greatly diminished, and its Lebanese opponents gaining sway.
In a measure of how far the tables have turned, the new government has declared it aims to establish a state monopoly on arms, meaning Hezbollah should disarm — as stipulated by the US-brokered ceasefire with Israel.
Against this backdrop, the election results so far indicate “the war didn’t achieve the objective of downgrading Hezbollah’s popularity in the community,” said Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center, a think tank. “On the contrary, many Shia now feel their fate is tied to Hezbollah’s fate.”
Hezbollah’s arms have long been a source of division in Lebanon, sparking a brief civil conflict in 2008. Critics say Hezbollah has unilaterally dragged Lebanon into hostilities.
Foreign Minister Youssef Raji, a Hezbollah opponent, has said that Lebanon has been told there will be no reconstruction aid from foreign donors until the state establishes a monopoly on arms.
Hezbollah, in turn, has put the onus on the government over reconstruction and accuses it of failing to take steps on that front, despite promises that the government is committed to it.

DISARMAMENT TERMS
Hage Ali said that conditioning reconstruction aid on disarmament was intended to expedite the process, but “it’s difficult to see Hezbollah accepting this.”
Hezbollah says its weapons are now gone from the south, but links any discussion of its remaining arsenal to Israel’s withdrawal from five positions it still holds, and an end to Israeli attacks.
Israel says Hezbollah still has combat infrastructure including rocket launchers in the south, calling this “blatant violations of understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
A French diplomatic source said reconstruction would not materialize if Israel continues striking and the Lebanese government does not act fast enough on disarmament.
Donors also want Beirut to enact economic reforms.
Hashem Haidar, head of the government’s Council for the South, said the state lacks the funds to rebuild, but cited progress in rubble removal. Lebanon needs $11 billion for reconstruction and recovery, the World Bank estimates.
In Nabatieh, a pile of rubble marks the spot where 71-year-old Khalil Tarhini’s store once stood. It was one of dozens destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Nabatieh’s central market.
He has received no compensation, and sees little point in voting. Expressing a sense of abandonment, he said: “The state did not stand by us.”
The situation was very different in 2006, after a previous Hezbollah-Israel war. Aid flowed from Iran and Gulf Arab states.
Hezbollah says it has aided 400,000 people, paying for rent, furniture and renovations. But the funds at its disposal appear well short of 2006, recipients say.
Hezbollah says state authorities have obstructed funds arriving from Iran, though Tehran is also more financially strapped than two decades ago due to tougher US sanctions and the reimposition of a “maximum pressure” policy by Washington.
As for Gulf states, their spending on Lebanon dried up as Hezbollah became embroiled in regional conflicts and they declared it a terrorist group in 2016. Saudi Arabia has echoed the Lebanese government’s position of calling for a state monopoly of arms.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said it was up to the government to secure reconstruction funding and that it was failing to take “serious steps” to get the process on track.
He warned that the issue risked deepening divisions in Lebanon if unaddressed. “How can one part of the nation be stable while another is in pain?” he said, referring to Shiites in the south and other areas, including Beirut’s Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs, hard hit by Israel.


At least 60 people killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza as Israel lets minimal aid in

Updated 23 May 2025
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At least 60 people killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza as Israel lets minimal aid in

  • Israel is facing mounting international criticism for its latest offensive and pressure to let aid into Gaza
  • Even the US, a staunch ally, has voiced concerns over the hunger crisis

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: At least 60 people were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza in a 24-hour period, Gaza’s health ministry said Friday, as Israel pressed ahead with its military offensive and let in minimal aid to the strip.

The dead included 10 people in the southern city of Khan Younis, four in the central town of Deir Al-Balah and nine in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.

Israel is facing mounting international criticism for its latest offensive and pressure to let aid into Gaza amid a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. The strip has been under an Israeli blockade for nearly three months, according to the United Nations. Experts have warned that many of Gaza’s 2 million residents are at high risk of famine.

Even the US, a staunch ally, has voiced concerns over the hunger crisis.

The strikes that lasted into Friday morning came a day after Israeli tanks and drones attacked a hospital in northern Gaza, igniting fires and causing extensive damage, Palestinian hospital officials said on Thursday. Videos taken by a health official at Al-Awda Hospital show walls blown away and thick black smoke billowing wreckage.

Israel said it will continue to strike Hamas until all of the 58 Israeli hostages are released — fewer than half of whom are believed to be alive, according to Israel — and until Hamas disarms.

Suspect charged with murder over deaths of Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington

The strikes come a day after two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot while leaving a reception for young diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum, in Washington, DC. The suspect told police he “did it for Palestine,” according to court documents filed Thursday as he was charged with murder. He didn’t enter a plea.

On Thursday night, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the killings in Washington horrific and blasted France, the UK and Canada for proposing to establish a Palestinian state.

“Because by issuing their demand, replete with a threat of sanctions against Israel — against Israel, not Hamas — these three leaders effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power,” he said.

Earlier this week the three leaders issued one of the most significant criticisms by close allies of Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza and its actions in the West Bank, threatening to take “concrete actions” if the government did not cease its renewed military offensive and significantly lift restrictions on humanitarian aid.

Aid starts entering, but agencies say nothing like enough

Amid pressure, Israel started letting in aid. Israeli officials said Friday they let in more than 100 trucks of aid, including flour, food, medical equipment and drugs. The trucks came in through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

But UN agencies say the amount is woefully insufficient, compared with around 600 trucks a day that entered during a recent ceasefire and that are necessary to meet basic needs. UN agencies say Israeli military restrictions and the breakdown of law and order in Gaza make it difficult to retrieve and distribute the aid. As a result, little of it has so far reached those in need.

The World Food Program said on Friday said that 15 of its trucks were looted Thursday night in southern Gaza while going to WFP-supported bakeries.

It said that hunger and desperation about whether food was coming in is contributing to rising insecurity, and called on Israel to allow greater volumes of food to enter, faster and more efficiently.

Israel says the aid now is to bridge the gap until a US backed initiative starts soon. A group known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will take over aid distribution in Gaza, and armed private contractors would guard the distribution. Israel says the system is needed because Hamas siphons off significant amounts of aid. The UN denies that claim.

On Friday a Geneva-based advocacy group said it was taking legal action to urge Swiss authorities to monitor the foundation.

TRIAL International, which focuses on international justice, said it made legal submissions to make sure that the privately-run foundation, which is listed in the Geneva commercial registry, abides by Swiss law, notably on the activities of private security groups.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.

No movement on ceasefire negotiations in Doha

Earlier this week, Netanyahu said he was recalling his high-level negotiating team from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.

Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said a “fundamental gap” remained between the two parties and that none of the proposals was able to bridge their differences.

Hamas said no real ceasefire talks have taken place since last week in Doha. The group accused Netanyahu of “falsely portraying participation” and attempting to “mislead global public opinion” by keeping Israel’s delegation there without engaging in serious negotiations.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.