Summary

Media caption,

What's happening with aid trying to get in to Gaza?

  1. Aid sits waiting just a few hours' drive from Gaza - Unrwapublished at 12:12 British Summer Time

    The UN's Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, has posted a video showing a large amount of aid sitting in a warehouse, external in Amman, the capital of Jordan, which it says is only a three-hour drive from Gaza.

    "Food for 200,000 people, medicine for 1.6 million, blankets, hygiene kits and school supplies sit waiting," it says, adding: "Meanwhile, people in Gaza are in need of everything. Supplies need to enter. Now."

    As we've been reporting, the UN and others have said today that although some aid has passed through Israeli security checks and entered the Gaza Strip, Israeli officials have not yet released it for distribution.

    The Israeli military body responsible for managing crossings into Gaza, Cogat, said 93 UN trucks carrying aid entered the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, following five the day before.

    It said on social media yesterday that the Israel Defense Forces "continue to facilitate humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip while making every effort to ensure that the aid does not reach the hands of the Hamas terrorist organisation".

  2. Gaza doctor fears 'death of hundreds of patients' if hospital forced to evacuatepublished at 12:01 British Summer Time

    There is also news from Nasser hospital - the largest remaining medical facility in Gaza - where a British doctor fears the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) could soon force an evacuation.

    And if that happens, she says there will be "imminent death of hundreds of patients".

    "We’re probably still about four streets from the active fighting zone," Dr Victoria Rose, who works in the hospital, says in an Instagram post.

    "We are praying and hoping the IDF don't get any closer to us," she says.

    If the fighting gets any nearer, she says they may not be able to transfer to al-Aqsa - the only other hospital that matches the size of Nassar - as parts of Gaza are blocked off by the IDF.

  3. Hospital is 'totally under siege', says directorpublished at 11:44 British Summer Time

    Alice Cuddy
    Reporting from Jerusalem

    I’ve just received a voice note from Mohammed Salha, director of northern Gaza's al-Awda hospital, who says it is “totally under siege”.

    “Nobody can move out and we can’t receive any cases from outside the hospital,” he says.

    Dr Salha adds that there is a quadcopter drone “shooting in the surroundings of the hospital and the outdoor area of the hospital. We also hear shooting from the tanks, I think it’s not close, maybe 400 or 500 metres [away],” he adds, before the voice note cuts out.

    In a follow-up message, he writes: “I am OK. But the situation is very difficult.”

    Al-Awda had already been struggling to operate because of a shortage of medical supplies caused by the blockade and the closure of nearby hospitals that it relied on for oxygen stocks and intensive care support following Israeli military operations.

    Dr Salha said that among other services, his hospital provided essential maternity care and that, without it, "women will have to give birth on the street".

    An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson told me: "I can confirm that there are forces operating in the area against terror targets; however, I am not aware of any siege on the hospital itself."

  4. UAE says it has reached deal with Israel to provide humanitarian aid for Gazapublished at 11:30 British Summer Time

    While the UN said its aid could not yet reach the Palestinian population, the United Arab Emirates says it has reached an agreement with Israel to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza.

    The agreement was announced last night following a phone call between UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa'ar.

    "The aid will address the food needs of approximately 15,000 civilians in the Gaza Strip in the initial phase," according to a statement on the UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.

    The aid also includes "essential supplies" to support bakeries and "critical items" for infant care "while ensuring a continuous supply to meet the ongoing needs of civilians", UAE says.

    The UAE has not provided details about how the agreement will work, or who will be responsible for the aid entering and being distributed in Gaza. Israel has not yet commented on the agreement.

    UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.Image source, Reuters
  5. Background to why Israel is fighting in Gazapublished at 11:17 British Summer Time

    Over 19 months ago, Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023.

    During that attack about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Hamas still holds 58 hostages after having handed over some others in recent months in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel's aims include destroying Hamas, returning the hostages and making sure Israel cannot be threatened in future.

    The Israeli government also said it wanted tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to be able to return to their homes in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, following attacks by Hamas's ally Hezbollah.

    More than 53,000 people in Gaza - mostly civilians, the majority of whom women and children - have been killed in the fighting, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

    The UN says most of the 2.3 million population have been forced from their homes and that there are "catastrophic" levels of food insecurity. In recent days, the UN said Israel had given permission for around 100 aid lorries to enter Gaza after 11 weeks of blocking all aid - even though the latest aid could not yet reach the population.

  6. UK government's new tough tone is significantpublished at 11:01 British Summer Time

    Jeremy Bowen
    International Editor

    The UK government's announcement on suspending a trade deal with Israel yesterday was significant - in particular the tough tone they chose to use.

    I have been reporting on this story since the 1990s. I don't think I've ever heard a British government talk about Israel's conduct of its military operations in that way before.

    The Israeli media this morning is full of the implications of this, as well as a sense that Israel is hurtling towards pariah status among its allies - that's something which, while the government will keep pushing back hard on it, people in Israel will be concerned about.

    The amount of aid that's going in frankly looks like a token - a token mostly aimed at the way Donald Trump and some significant Americans have said they don't want to see pictures of starvation.

    Britain, Canada and France will have to decide what to do if Israel does not listen to their calls to stop the offensive and let in a significant and large number of shipments of aid - neither of those things have happened yet.

  7. In pictures: Palestinians mourn those killed in Israeli strikespublished at 10:51 British Summer Time

    As we've been reporting, the UN says the aid trucks haven't reached people in Gaza yet.

    It comes after a series of Israeli strikes hit the territory overnight. Here are some latest pictures.

    Smoke rises from northern Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border, May 21, 2025Image source, Reuters
    Image caption,

    Residential areas have been battered by Israeli airstrikes in the latest massive offensive, as seen here in Northern Gaza.

    Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, May 21, 2025.Image source, Reuters
    Image caption,

    Young men dig through the ruins of a destroyed home in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

    Palestinians carry a body at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip May 21, 2025Image source, Reuters
    Image caption,

    Here, several men carry the body of a Palestinian who was killed in the overnight airstrikes in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

    Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, May 21, 2025.Image source, Reuters
    Image caption,

    At Nassar hospital in Khan Younis, Palestinians cry during a funeral for those who have been killed.

  8. 'Whole population on brink of starvation' in Gaza - World Food Programmepublished at 10:43 British Summer Time

    Antoine Renard, the UN's World Food Programme representative in East Jerusalem, says the "temporary opening up" of aid into Gaza is "not sufficient at all" for the "acute food needs".

    "So far, only very few trucks managed to leave from Kerem Shalom [border crossing] and the platform that is in Gaza towards the Strip," he tells the BBC World Service's Newsday programme.

    Asked about Israel's plan to change the way aid is distributed in Gaza away from relying on the UN, Renard says it is important the existing food network is allowed to stay in place.

    There needs to be sustained large-scale aid, "otherwise we will not avert what is currently a whole population on the brink of starvation", he says.

  9. Pope Leo calls for 'sufficient humanitarian aid' into Gazapublished at 10:14 British Summer Time

    Davide Ghiglione
    Reporting from the Vatican

    Pope Leo XIV holds his first general audience in St. Peter's SquareImage source, Reuters

    Over in the Vatican, Pope Leo has just given an address in which he called for "sufficient humanitarian aid" to be allowed into the Gaza Strip.

    During his first general audience in St Peter's Square the Pope said: “The situation in the Gaza strip is ever more worrying and painful.

    "I renew my appeal to allow for the entry of fair humanitarian help and to bring to an end the hostilities, the high price of which is paid by children, the elderly and the sick.”

  10. Medical supplies 'critically low' - Doctors Without Borderspublished at 09:53 British Summer Time

    The emergency coordinator in Gaza for the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, Claire Manera, tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme that medical supplies are "critically low".

    "There is a small amount of aid that is inside, but it hasn't reached the communities at all," she says, adding Israeli officials are placing conditions on how it is distributed which are "not safe".

    Meanwhile, homes and hospitals are "being targeted" and "the access to healthcare and to any kind of assistance is becoming impossible", she says.

    She says the condition of people there is "deteriorating", and the number of children coming in with third-degree burns is "horrific".

    The "agony" of children without pain medication, people on the streets "desperate for food", and mothers "watching their children starve", are things that are "getting worse every day", she says.

  11. Israel trying to ensure Hamas does not steal aid, Israeli politician sayspublished at 09:35 British Summer Time

    Michael Kleiner, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party in Israel, and president of the party's internal court, blames Hamas for preventing peace, and notes they are still holding hostages.

    "The moment Hamas will decide it stops, it stops," he tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme, calling on those who criticise Israel to call on Hamas to accept a peace proposal.

    He says almost 100 aid trucks entered Gaza yesterday, "most of them" carrying medical equipment.

    When it's put to him that the UN and others say the aid is not yet being distributed, he says the "main problem" is that Hamas has been "taking over the convoys" and Israel wants to ensure aid reaches the population.

    Addressing international pressure over Israel's new offensive in Gaza, he says Hamas is the enemy of the Palestinian population, not Israel, adding Europe doesn't understand this.

    Kleiner calls for people to look at the "whole picture", questioning what they would say were they to view the German city of Dresden during World War Two, and asking if people would say "how miserable are those German victims, and how cruel are the British for bombarding them".

    Some 58 hostages remain in Gaza, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

  12. 'I spent the whole day searching for flour'published at 09:17 British Summer Time

    Alice Cuddy
    Reporting from Jerusalem

    I've been catching up overnight with 31-year-old Adham al-Batrawi, who was telling me last week of the "creative ways" people in Gaza had found to survive, including turning pasta into an imitation of bread.

    "Honestly, I don't really know how to describe the situation here, it's extremely bad," Adham, a graphic designer displaced in central Gaza, said by WhatsApp.

    "There's a major shortage of food. I spent the whole day today searching for flour and couldn't find any. Things are getting harder every single day."

    He adds the war "has shown us things I never thought I'd witness. I've had to do things I never imagined I'd have to in my entire life. It's heart-breaking".

    Adham al-Batrawi
  13. Fifteen killed in Gaza overnight in Israeli strikes, says Hamas-run Civil Defencepublished at 09:04 British Summer Time

    Some 15 people have been killed in Gaza in Israeli air strikes since midnight, the Hamas-run Civil Defence service says.

    The figure includes 11 who were killed during a strike in Jabalia in northern Gaza - with 13 more injured.

    Two further people, including a child, were killed in a separate strike on the town.

    In two separate strikes that took place in areas to the east of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, two more people died and others were injured.

    The agency specifies these figures relate to deaths since midnight local time.

    Separately, the AFP news agency reports that 19 have been killed overnight in total.

  14. ‘I can’t protect my children from missiles, or hunger, or heat’published at 08:40 British Summer Time

    Alice Cuddy
    Reporting from Jerusalem

    I’ve been receiving more messages from people in Gaza, who have been telling me about their struggles with hunger as they wait for food and other aid to arrive.

    As a reminder, Israel does not allow international journalists free access to Gaza, so many of our interviews are conducted over phone calls and messages, as well as by trusted Palestinian freelancers working with the BBC.

    “We are in tents under the scorching heat, struggling with empty stomachs," a nurse in southern Gaza tells me over WhatsApp.

    "My children are crying from hunger. I don’t know what to do - as a mother, I stand helpless. I can’t protect them from the missiles, or the hunger, or the heat, or the insects and crawling creatures."

    A father of two in Khan Younis writes: “I am not well, neither I nor my children."

  15. Former Israeli PM says more international pressure on Netanyahu neededpublished at 08:15 British Summer Time

    A file photo of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud OlmertImage source, EPA

    Nothing but domestic and international political pressure will convince Benjamin Netanyahu to pull back from a renewed offensive in Gaza, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

    Yesterday, the UK government announced it had suspended talks on a trade deal with Israel, summoned the country's ambassador and imposed fresh sanctions on West Bank settlers. It also joined other nations in condemning the situation in Gaza and calling for more aid to enter the territory.

    Olmert, a critic of the current Israeli leadership, says the pressure is "not insignificant" but "not sufficient yet", suggesting US President Donald Trump "maybe" could tip the balance for Netanyahu.

    On the UK's action, he says "carry on the political condemnation as much as you can", but adds "don't punish the Israeli citizens with economic sanctions", arguing many are calling for an end to the war.

    "I consider the condemnation coming from Prime Minister Starmer and others as support of the demand that unites the majority of Israelis to end the war and bring the hostages back," he says.

  16. The situation in Gaza remains catastrophicpublished at 07:52 British Summer Time

    Rushdi Abualouf
    Gaza correspondent, reporting from Cairo

    Two million people are facing starvation in Gaza.

    All eyes have been on the spot where the trucks are supposed to be taking or getting the food to the people. That is not happening.

    Since yesterday, the trucks have been waiting and waiting and this morning it's the same situation.

    Even 100 trucks are not going to make a huge difference, because Gaza has been without food for 11 weeks.

    If you look at pictures people have posted from the markets, they're almost empty, there is no fruit, vegetables, no protein, no meat, no chicken in Gaza.

    And most importantly, no fuel to run the generators in the hospital. No medicine into Gaza. 25% of the water in Gaza is contaminated and not drinkable.

    So the situation remains very catastrophic.

  17. How might aid arrive and be distributed in Gaza?published at 07:43 British Summer Time

    On Sunday, Israel agreed to allow a limited amount of aid into Gaza, ending its 11-week blockade.

    Israel said 93 trucks carrying aid were transferred to Gaza on Tuesday, a much higher figure than the five trucks that crossed the day before.

    However, the UN has said that aid has yet to reach the civilian population.

    According to the UN, Israeli authorities required the UN trucks to offload their supplies on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, which is located on the border with southern Gaza.

    UN teams inside Gaza were unable to collect the aid on Tuesday after waiting several hours for the Israeli green light to access the holding area.

    There are five other crossing points controlled by Israeli forces – Kissufim and Gate 96, which are on the border with central Gaza; Erez and Erez West, which are on the border with northern Gaza; and the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which has been closed since Israeli forces seized it a year ago.

  18. Analysis

    Starmer and Lammy sound genuinely angry at Israelpublished at 07:26 British Summer Time

    Paul Adams
    Diplomatic correspondent

    After more than a year and a half of the war in Gaza, Britain appears to have finally lost patience with Israel.

    Speaking to MPs, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy sounded genuinely angry.

    The PM said he was "horrified" by Israel's decision to escalate its military campaign.

    Israel's actions, Lammy said, were isolating Israel from friends and partners around the world and "damaging the image of the State of Israel in the eyes of the world".

    Britain is not alone in expressions of outrage or threats of concrete action.

    The EU says it's reviewing its association agreement with Israel, which governs its political and economic relationship.

    And on Monday night, Britain joined France and Canada in signing a strongly worded joint statement, condemning Israel's military action.

    Even US President Donald Trump has expressed impatience, warning that "a lot of people are starving" as he concluded his regional tour last week.

  19. UK steps up action against Israel over Gaza offensivepublished at 07:07 British Summer Time

    David Lammy speaking in parliamentImage source, Reuters

    Yesterday, the UK suspended talks on a trade deal with Israel, summoned the country's ambassador and imposed fresh sanctions on West Bank settlers.

    Speaking in the House of Commons, Foreign Secretary David Lammy described the military escalation in Gaza as "morally unjustifiable" and said the conflict was "entering a dark new phase".

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the situation in the territory "intolerable", saying "humanitarian aid needs to get in at pace".

    The move followed warnings of starvation in Gaza after Israel launched a new military operation over the weekend.

    Israeli foreign spokesman Oren Marmorstein responded, external to Lammy's statement on X, saying the decisions on sanctions were "unjustified".

    "External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction," he said.

    The leaders of the UK, Canada, and France also issued a joint statement in which they called on the Israeli government to end its "egregious" military expansion and "immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza".

  20. Israeli military says it will 'continue to facilitate humanitarian assistance in Gaza'published at 06:52 British Summer Time

    Aid stacked on the Israeli side of the borderImage source, Reuters / Cogat

    As we've been reporting, Israeli officials say 93 UN aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip yesterday. However, the UN says its teams have been left waiting for permission from Israel to collect the supplies.

    The Israeli military's Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat) says the aid includes flour for bakeries, baby food, medical equipment, and pharmaceuticals.

    The aid was transferred through the Kerem Shalom Crossing "only after a thorough security inspection", it says.

    "The IDF will continue to facilitate humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip while making every effort to ensure that the aid does not reach the hands of the Hamas terrorist organisation," it says in a message on social media.

    In another message on social media, addressed to the people in Gaza, Israeli military's Chief of Staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir says: "We are not the ones who have deprived you of food, shelter, and money."

    He adds: "Hamas is responsible for starting the war. It is responsible for the difficult situation of the civilian population - it brought destruction, and it will not be the one to rebuild."