No humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, says Israel

Israel said on Wednesday it would keep blocking humanitarian aid entering Gaza, where a relentless military offensive has turned the Palestinian territory into a "mass grave", a medical charity said.

Israel resumed air and ground attacks across the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas that had largely halted hostilities in the territory, with rescuers on Wednesday saying at least 11 were killed in strikes across Gaza.

Israel had already halted the entry of aid into Gaza on March 2, exacerbating the severe humanitarian crisis in the war-battered territory.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel would continue preventing aid from entering the besieged territory of 2.4 million people.

"Israel's policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population," Katz said in a statement Wednesday.

"No one is currently planning to allow any humanitarian aid into Gaza, and there are no preparations to enable such aid."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cited military pressure as the only way to secure the release of the 58 hostages currently held in Gaza.

"Hamas will continue to suffer blow after blow. We insist that they release our hostages, and we insist on achieving all of our war objectives," Netanyahu told troops in northern Gaza Tuesday.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian foreign ministry denounced his Gaza visit, calling it a "provocative intrusion intended to prolong and intensify the crimes of genocide and forced displacement" of Gazans.

On Wednesday, the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad released a video of an Israeli hostage, showing him alive and appealing to Israeli authorities and US President Donald Trump to secure his release.

Israeli media identified him as Rom Braslavski from Jerusalem, who was abducted by Hamas from the Nova music festival during Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Israeli military operations and the aid blockade had transformed Gaza into a graveyard for Palestinians and aid workers.

"Gaza has been turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance," said MSF coordinator Amande Bazerolle.

"With nowhere safe for Palestinians or those trying to help them, the humanitarian response is severely struggling under the weight of insecurity and critical supply shortages, leaving people with few, if any, options for accessing care," she said.

The UN had warned on Monday that Gaza was facing its most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began in October 2023.

"The humanitarian situation is now likely the worst it has been in the 18 months since the outbreak of hostilities," said the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

In a statement, OCHA said no supplies had reached the territory for a month and a half, and medical supplies, fuel, water and other essentials were in short supply.

Israel controls the entry of all aid and supplies to Gaza.

On April 28, the International Court of Justice is set to open hearings on Israel's humanitarian obligations towards Palestinians.

The UN General Assembly approved a resolution in December requesting that The Hague-based top court give an advisory opinion on the matter.

It calls on the ICJ to clarify what Israel is required to do to "ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population".

Although ICJ decisions are legally binding, the court has no concrete way of enforcing them.

Israel continued to pound Gaza on Wednesday.

At least 11 people were killed in air strikes, 10 of them in an attack on Gaza City, the civil defence agency said.

The renewed assault has so far killed at least 1,652 people in Gaza, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reported, bringing to 51,025 the total toll since the war erupted in October 2023, most of them civilians.

Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Agence France-Presse