UN announces approval for the entry of 100 aid trucks into Gaza.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday that it had received approval from Israel to allow approximately 100 aid trucks into the Gaza Strip.

According to the Gaza government, the Strip needs approximately 500 aid trucks and 50 fuel trucks daily to meet the minimum needs of Palestinians.

At a press conference in Geneva, OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke explained: "We asked (Israel) for approval to allow more trucks to enter today, and we did receive that approval, which is much more than the number of trucks allowed to enter yesterday (Monday)."

He added, "We naturally expect, with this approval, that many of these trucks, and hopefully all of them, will be able to cross today to points where they can be received and then head deeper into Gaza for distribution."

When asked about the exact number of aid trucks, the UN spokesman said the figure was "about 100 trucks."

This announcement comes just one day after the United Nations reported that Israel had allowed nine aid trucks to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

However, Larkey noted that only five of the nine trucks approved on Monday were actually able to enter Gaza, due to logistical complications at the crossing.

He explained that aid trucks undergo multiple stages of transportation at the crossing, including repacking from one truck to another before being allowed to enter.

He added that the five trucks that entered on Monday have not yet been fully released for distribution due to ongoing Israeli oversight procedures.

He continued, explaining, "These trucks were transferred to different levels of Israeli control. The last level, where the trucks are currently located, is still under Israeli control, and we need permission to receive them."

The UN spokesman noted that this authorization was not available until Monday, but the situation changed on Tuesday morning.

He continued: "This morning, we received permission to receive those five trucks. That's as much as I know at the moment. We have permission to receive them, and we also have permission to receive other trucks that may enter today."

For his part, a Gaza government official reported that only five aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday.

The government official, who preferred to remain anonymous, added that none of the aid that entered or is still being distributed in areas where Israeli forces are present.

He explained that, according to information available from international relief organizations, these trucks contained a very small amount of wheat flour, nutritional supplements, milk substitutes for children, and quantities of shrouds.

He pointed out that these quantities "do not meet the needs of even one percent of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for one day, even if they were fully loaded with food."

The Gaza government official said that Israel is using aid as a "pressure card" and is continuing to starve Palestinians in the Strip.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher previously described the Israeli authorities' permission on Monday for aid trucks to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing as "a welcome development, but it is not enough, as it represents a drop in the ocean of urgent needs."

OCHA and other humanitarian organizations have repeatedly called for safe, sustained, and widespread access to the Gaza Strip, where areas are suffering from severe shortages of food, medicine, and fuel.

Since March 2, Israel has pursued a policy of systematic starvation against approximately 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza by closing the crossings to aid supplies piling up at the border, plunging the Strip into famine and claiming many lives.

With full American support, Israel has been committing genocidal crimes in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 174,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands displaced.