From the Associated Press: International outcry over images of emaciated children and increasing reports of hunger-related deaths have pressured Israel to let more aid into the Gaza Strip. This week, Israel paused fighting in parts of Gaza and airdropped food.
But aid groups and Palestinians say the changes have only been incremental and are not enough to reverse what food experts say is a “ worst-case scenario of famine” unfolding in the war-ravaged territory.
The new measures have brought an uptick in the number of aid trucks entering Gaza. But almost none of it reaches U.N. warehouses for distribution.
Instead, nearly all the trucks are stripped of their cargo by crowds that overwhelm them on the roads as they drive from the borders. The crowds are a mix of Palestinians desperate for food and gangs armed with knives, axes or pistols who loot the goods to then hoard or sell.
The violence at the aid trucks has led to injury and even death in the hundreds, according to local hospitals.
Israeli troops report opening fire around aid trucks to control crowds or to deter people people approaching their forces.
Even alternative food distribution methods have failed as the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s system has also been marred by violence, the AP reports.
I'd like to set the record straight.
Children in Gaza aren't going hungry because of Israel. They're suffering because Hamas uses food and aid as a weapon to stay in power. pic.twitter.com/a2dGKThz0u
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) August 1, 2025
READ MORE AT Associated Press
