Israel's national security adviser says the country's War Cabinet has agreed to allow two tanker trucks of fuel to enter the Gaza Strip each day — a quantity he described as “very minimal”. The War Cabinet's decision comes at a time when the United Nations was forced to stop its delivery of food and other essential aid to Gaza when internet and telephone services in the enclave collapsed due to lack of fuel.
The United Nations warned of possible widespread starvation in the besieged enclave because of the lack of fuel, and said most people in Gaza were without adequate food and clean water. At least 11,470 Palestinians — two-thirds of them women and minors — have been killed since the war began, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Israel vowed to wipe out Hamas after the militant group launched its October 7 incursion. Some 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, mostly during the initial attack, and around 240 were taken captive by militants.
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1. Israel has agreed to allow 140,000 litres (36,984 gallons) of fuel into Gaza every 48 hours through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and the first deliveries are expected on Saturday, officials from the US State Department said, according to AP.
Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Israel's national security adviser says the deliveries are intended to prevent the spread of disease without disrupting Israel's ability to continue its war against the Hamas militant group. He says the fuel amounted to roughly 2 per cent to 4 per cent of the normal quantities of fuel that entered Gaza before the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7.
2. The United Nations World Food Programme warned that civilians in Gaza faced the "immediate possibility of starvation" due to the lack of food supplies. Even when food was allowed to be delivered into the besieged territory, dthe eliveries are “woefully inadequate” to tackle desperate hunger of nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.
3. Israeli forces on Friday killed five Palestinians, including three militants, across the West Bank. Israel says the crackdown is aimed at Hamas, the ruling group in Gaza, and other militant groups active in the West Bank.
4. Israel continued its raid on Gaza's largest hospital Al-Shifa which became the latest war zone in Israel's war in the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the hospital has run out of fuel, oxygen and other basic supplies, leading to the deaths of three newborns and 24 other patients.
5. Further, in recent days, Israel's military has indicated it could expand operations in the south, where most of Gaza's population has taken refuge. Israeli forces dropped leaflets Wednesday afternoon telling Palestinians in areas near the southern town of Khan Younis to evacuate.
