Three days after Israel announced that it would ease its blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza, it appeared on Wednesday that little, if any, of the desperately needed food, fuel and medicine had actually reached hungry Palestinians.
Dozens of trucks ferrying supplies have crossed into Gaza at the Israeli-controlled border crossing of Kerem Shalom, according to Israel. But the United Nations has so far been unable to move any trucks from Kerem Shalom to warehouses inside Gaza, in part because of fears of looting, according to a U.N. official, who requested anonymity to share sensitive details.
Palestinians reeling from Israel’s two-month ban on food, fuel and other supplies have been left waiting. The delays suggested that distributing aid across Gaza was likely to take time, even as Israel threatens a major ground offensive that could upend the process.
“Today we will mostly eat lentils, or pasta,” Riyadh al-Housari, a 25-year-old in Gaza City, said in a phone interview. “We eat one meal in the late afternoon. It is one meal and there is no other.”
Israel’s blockade has rendered the situation so dire that Gazans are at “critical risk of famine,” a panel of U.N.-backed experts said in May. They projected that tens of thousands of children could suffer from acute malnutrition if the restrictions continued. Israel argued the report was based on faulty data and assumptions.
In early March, Israel announced it was barring humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. Israeli officials argued that the restrictions aimed to pressure Hamas to agree terms for ending the war and freeing the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
The impact on ordinary Gazans was immense: Aid organizations suspended their operations as food stockpiles dwindled, and the price of food skyrocketed. By May, relief officials were warning that widespread hunger had become a daily reality.
For weeks, Israel refused to allow aid agencies to resume operations unless they agreed to new Israeli conditions, purportedly to prevent supplies from falling into Hamas’s hands. Israeli leaders publicly insisted that Gaza still had plentiful stockpiles of food, even as some military officials privately concluded that Palestinians there could face starvation within weeks.
Even the United States — one of Israel’s most stalwart supporters throughout the conflict — began suggesting that the humanitarian crisis was spiraling out of control. Last week, President Trump said that “a lot of people are starving” in the Gaza Strip and that the United States was working to alleviate the situation.
The Israeli authorities relented on Sunday night, announcing that they would begin allowing in small amounts of food.
Without any new aid having actually arrived, many in Gaza are trying to make whatever provisions they have last as long as possible. “We don’t plan meals anymore. We just work with whatever we can find,” said Sabah ِAbu al-Roos, 63, in the central city of Deir al-Balah.
Produce like eggplants and tomatoes are often hawked at eye-watering prices, according to several Gazans. Ms. Abu al-Roos said that one vendor in a local street market had been selling a single onion for $8.50.
Abdelhalim Awad, who runs a now-shuttered bakery in Deir al-Balah, said the hope of food arriving had become like the endless reports of an imminent cease-fire: constantly trumpeted as just around the corner yet still out of reach.
“But even if we get some flour today, it seems we won’t have anything close to what’s needed to feed people,” Mr. Awad said.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
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