Israel Allows Aid Into Gaza As WHO Warns 500,000 On Brink Of Starvation

Israel has enforced a nearly three-month blockade on humanitarian aid going into the Gaza Strip, amid reports that Hamas and criminal elements have been intercepting and stealing the aid, and then reselling it.

The Wall Street Journal reports Monday that "Israel will allow the resumption of limited aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, ending a nearly three-month blockade that has depleted humanitarian supplies in the enclave as the military expands its operations there."

Pressure has been coming from Washington and international organizations for the ban on aid to be lifted, on new reports that famine is once again hitting the largely destroyed Palestinian enclave.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office first announced Sunday that "a basic quantity of food to be brought in" to avoid a starvation crisis. He has also declared his intent to take over all of the Gaza Strip.

Interestingly, the statement said that a driving concern is not the plight of Gaza civilians, but that mass starvation could risk endangering the Israeli military campaign to annihilate the militant group Hamas.

Netanyahu is framing the move as necessary to keep up political support from Washington:

Netanyahu said U.S. senators he has known for years as supporters of Israel, "our best friends in the world", were telling him the scenes of hunger were draining vital support and bringing Israel close to a "red line, to a point where we might lose control".

"It is for that reason, in order to achieve victory, we have to somehow solve the problem," he said, in a message apparently addressed to far-right hardliners in his government who have insisted aid be denied to Gaza to stop it reaching Hamas.

So the new policy to allow aid in is a political ploy, but one that will indeed likely satisfy critics, for the time being at least.

Fresh reports out of the UN and World Health Organization (WHO) have sounded the alarm, saying nearly 500,000 people are at risk of starvation in Gaza.

"Populations across the Gaza Strip are at risk of famine as fighting has surged again, border crossings are still closed, and food is dangerously scarce," a UN statement says.

"Hunger and malnutrition have intensified sharply since all aid was blocked from entering on 2 March, reversing the clear humanitarian gains seen during the ceasefire earlier this year," the UN's World Food Program has said.

And the organization, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), projects that "an alarming 71,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition. A report states that "At the beginning of 2025, agencies estimated 60,000 children would need treatment."

The organization further warned that "Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border." As it's believed that tens of thousands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants are still utilizing Gaza's vast tunnel network to fight the Israelis, the war looks to continue possibly for years to come.