Israel faced growing pressure from allies, particularly the European Union, to open aid corridors as the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate.
International efforts to get desperately needed aid to war-wracked northern Gaza gained momentum earlier Wednesday amid pressure for the creation of a sea route from Cyprus to Gaza.
British Foreign Minister David Cameron, in the meanwhile, joined a voiced frustration saying that Israel’s allies were losing patience.
While aid groups say all of Gaza is mired in a humanitarian crisis, the situation in the largely isolated north stands out. Many of the estimated 300,000 people still living there have been reduced to eating animal fodder to survive. The U.N. says that one in six children younger than 2 in the north suffers from acute malnutrition.
Amid the global pressure to alleviate the crisis, two Israeli officials said Wednesday the government will begin allowing aid to move directly from its territory into northern Gaza and will also cooperate with the creation of the sea route from Cyprus.
Israel would allow 20 to 30 aid trucks to enter northern Gaza from Israel on Friday, the start of more regular deliveries via that route, one of the officials said. It will also begin doing security checks Sunday on aid in Cyprus before it's delivered via sea to Gaza, the official said. The ship will be part of a pilot project to test the feasibility of the sea route. The aid is UAE-funded and made possible with U.S. involvement.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the upcoming shipments with the media.
Aid groups have said it has become nearly impossible to deliver supplies within most of Gaza because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military, its ongoing war and the breakdown of public order. It is even more difficult to get aid to the north.
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid have to drive from the Rafah crossing with Egypt or the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, both on the southern edge of Gaza, through the conflict zone to reach the largely cut-off areas in the north.
Last week, an attempt by the Israeli military killed over 100 Palestinians in a botched attempt to facilitate aid movement.
On Wednesday, hundreds of people ran along a seaside road on the outskirts of Gaza City to collect bags of flour and boxes of water and canned food donated by Türkiye and Egypt and were part of a shipment trucked in from southern Gaza.
British Foreign Secretary Cameron met with Benny Gantz, a visiting member of Israel's war Cabinet, and pressed him to increase the flow of aid into Gaza.
"We are still not seeing improvements on the ground. This must change," Cameron said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
South Africa, which filed a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, asked the court Wednesday to order Israel to allow in aid "to address famine and starvation" in Gaza.
Meanwhile, European Union Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen is set to visit Cyprus on Friday to inspect installations at the port of Larnaca, from where aid would leave for Gaza if a sea route is established, Greek Cypriot spokesperson Constantinos Letymbiotis said.
EU spokesperson Eric Mamer said the bloc is hopeful the corridor will open "very soon."
Concerned by the lack of access to food, the United States, Jordan and other nations have begun making air drops of aid in recent days, but aid groups say only a fraction of the needed assistance can be delivered by air.
Aid groups say Israel's war, triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion, has killed over 33,500 people and displaced most of the territory’s population, pushing a quarter of the population to the brink of famine.