GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — While global media outlets continue to show images of humanitarian aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip, the residents of this besieged coastal enclave have yet to feel any meaningful change as a result of these convoys. Children’s stomachs remain empty.
Gaza has been gripped by an acute food crisis since the Israeli government imposed an aid blockade in early March 2025, as negotiations for a permanent ceasefire with Hamas remain stalled. This policy has resulted in the deaths of more than 147 people, including 88 children, due to hunger, according to Zaher Al-Wahidi, who works for the Gaza Health Ministry.
Amid mounting international pressure to ease the humanitarian crisis, Israel announced on July 27 a humanitarian pause for 10 hours a day in Gaza City, Deir al Balah and Al-Mawasi, and authorized the entry of humanitarian aid trucks that had been accumulating for months at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing in south Gaza. These trucks, allocated for international relief organizations, were finally allowed into the enclave.
On Sunday, Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which operates under the Defense Ministry, said that 180 truckloads of aid entered Gaza that day. Another 260 trucks entered on Monday, 200 on Tuesday, 270 on Wednesday and 210 on Thursday. Meanwhile, a Hamas official told Al-Monitor that between July 27 and 31, some 373 trucks entered the enclave and most of them were looted.
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