In early March, shortly before the collapse of a two-month ceasefire in its war against Hamas, Israel reimposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip, where aid agencies have warned of critical shortages of everything from food and clean water to fuel and medicines.
US President Donald Trump acknowledged on Friday that “a lot of people are starving” in the besieged Palestinian territory.
“We’re looking at Gaza. And we’re going to get that taken care of,” Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi, on a regional tour that excluded key ally Israel.
Israel says its decision to cut off aid to Gaza was intended to force concessions from militant group Hamas, which still holds dozens of Israeli hostages seized during the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war.
Hamas on Monday freed Edan Alexander, the last living hostage with US nationality, after direct engagement with the Trump administration that left Israel sidelined.
As part of the understanding with Washington regarding Alexander’s release, senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu on Friday said the group was “awaiting and expecting the US administration to exert further pressure” on Israel “to open the crossings and allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid.”
Nunu’s remarks come a day after Hamas had warned Trump that Gaza was not “for sale,” responding to the US president again suggesting he could take over the Palestinian territory and turn it into “a freedom zone.”
On the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes on Friday killed at least 88 people.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 2,985 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,119 deaths in the Palestinian territory. (AFP)
