UN aid deliveries to Gaza were suspended again on Friday due to shortages of fuel and a communications shutdown, deepening the misery of thousands of hungry and homeless Palestinians as Israeli troops battled Hamas militants in the enclave.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said civilians faced the “immediate possibility of starvation” because of the lack of food supplies.
Palestinian news agency WAFA said a number of Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli strike that hit a group of displaced people near the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt - the transit point for aid.
Al Jazeera TV cited sources as saying that nine people were killed in the strike. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the reported strike and Reuters could not verify it.
The UN said there would be no cross-border aid operation on Friday because of fuel shortages and a communication shutdown. For a second consecutive day on Thursday, no aid trucks arrived in Gaza because of a lack of fuel for distributing relief.
WFP executive director Cindy McCain said nearly the entire population was in desperate need of food assistance.
“Supplies of food and water are practically non-existent in Gaza and only a fraction of what is needed is arriving through the borders,” she said in a statement.
“With winter fast approaching, unsafe and overcrowded shelters, and the lack of clean water, civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation,” McCain said.
The Israeli military’s chief of staff said Israel was close to destroying Hamas’ military system in the northern Gaza Strip and there were signs the army was taking its campaign to other parts of the coastal enclave of 2.3 million people.
Israel accused Hamas of preventing people from heading to the south of the Gaza Strip, which the militant group denied.
The army released a video it said showed a tunnel entrance in an outdoor area of Al Shifa, Gaza’s biggest hospital.
The video, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed a deep hole in the ground, littered with and surrounded by concrete and wood rubble and sand. It appeared the area had been excavated.
The army said its troops also found a car containing weapons. Reuters journalists have been unable to reach anyone inside Shifa Hospital for more than 24 hours.