Israel has imposed new restrictions on the flow of aid into the besieged Gaza Strip and will not open the Rafah crossing as planned, while Israeli forces have killed at least nine people in the Palestinian territory as tensions rise in the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Israel informed the United Nations on Tuesday that it would only allow 300 aid trucks into the Gaza Strip each day starting Wednesday, half the number originally agreed.
Olga Cherevko, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza, confirmed that the U.N. received the memo from the Coordination of Regional Government Operations (COGAT), the arm of the Israeli military that oversees the flow of aid to Gaza.
The COGAT memorandum states that no fuel or gas will be allowed into the war-torn enclave, except for specific needs related to humanitarian infrastructure.
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that allowing 300 trucks of aid each day is “not enough” for starving Gaza.
“300 people is not enough. It doesn’t change anything,” he said.
Israeli authorities also announced that the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed.
The restrictions came hours after Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians in attacks in northern and southern Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
At least six Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza City, and three more in Khan Yunis.
MNA/