Israel maintained its closure of Gaza's main commercial crossing Monday, refusing entry to humanitarian trucks despite pledging to resume aid deliveries, while carrying out a wave of deadly airstrikes that killed dozens, including many women and children.
Nine aid trucks scheduled to enter through the Karm Abu Salem crossing were denied access, said Nahed Shohaibar, head of the Private Transport Association in Gaza, “The Israeli side allowed only four trucks carrying children’s nutritional supplements to unload at the crossing. But they did not permit the trucks to enter the Gaza Strip,” Shohaibar told Al Manassa.
He added that 100 flour trucks arriving from Ashdod Port were turned back under Israeli orders, despite having been prepared for delivery. Israeli authorities claimed that there are trucks carrying food supplies and flour on the Egyptian side that have been waiting for weeks, but it did not allow their entry either.
Shohaibar estimated that the four trucks might be permitted into Gaza on Tuesday, though there was no official confirmation.
United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said in a statement that Israeli authorities had “temporarily allowed us to resume delivery of limited aid into Gaza,” following an 11-week blockade and amid an escalation in military operations. He confirmed that “nine of our trucks were cleared to enter” via the Karm Abu Salem crossing, but emphasized that the clearance fell far short of the population’s needs. “It is a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed,” Fletcher said. He urged Israel to “allow significantly more aid into Gaza”, starting Tuesday morning.
Fletcher said the UN is prepared to scale up aid operations but called on Israel to take concrete steps to enable that. He urged authorities to open at least two crossings — one in the north and one in the south — and to remove restrictions, including quotas and bureaucratic delays. He also called for safe humanitarian corridors, warning against attacks during aid delivery times, and stressed the need to address the full spectrum of humanitarian needs, including food, water, shelter, health care, fuel, and hygiene supplies.
Israel’s security cabinet had announced Sunday it would resume aid access under UN supervision after two and a half months of complete closure, widely seen as a starvation tactic during its ongoing assault on Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military intensified its aerial campaign Tuesday morning, launching three airstrikes in central and northern Gaza. According to Al Manassa sources, 40 people from three families—mostly children and women—were killed in what local media described as “massacres.”
Four additional strikes late Monday in Khan Younis killed 26 more civilians, a medical source at Nasser Hospital said.
Among the targets was the Musa Ibn Nusayr school in eastern Gaza, operated by the UN agency UNRWA and sheltering displaced residents. A witness said two drones appeared without warning before hitting the school. Civil defense teams recovered 13 bodies and rescued 18 injured people.
“The remains were so charred we couldn’t distinguish men from women,” a civil defense official told Al Manassa.
At Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, a medical source confirmed that most victims suffered severe burns caused by fires ignited in nearby tents. “The identities of many victims could only be confirmed by their neighbors,” the source said.
In other attacks, an airstrike on a house in Deir al-Balah killed 15 members of a single family and injured three. Another family of 15 was killed in a strike on Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, while 12 others were injured. In al-Mawasi, a designated “safe humanitarian zone,” an Israeli strike on a displaced family’s tent killed a mother and her six children.
Israel resumed its assault on Gaza on March 18, ending a brief ceasefire agreement reached on Jan 19. That deal had called for the exchange of all hostages held by Hamas and a full Israeli withdrawal from the enclave. Israel did not implement the withdrawal, and fighting resumed.
