Live: Lack of aid could kill 14,000 babies in Gaza in 48 hours, UN warns

At least two people were killed by Israeli drone fire in Gaza’s al-Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza, Al Jazeera English reports

Separately, another two people were killed by Israeli shelling in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

The UN’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Tuesday that 14,000 babies in Gaza could die in the next 48 hours if aid doesn’t reach them.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Fletcher denounced the limited amount of aid entering the Strip, saying that only five trucks of aid were allowed into the enclave on Monday, which he described as only “a drop in the ocean”.

Although aid lorries are technically in Gaza, the UN chief said supplies, which contain baby food and nutrition, are not reaching civilians.

“I want to save as many as these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours,” he told the BBC.

“We have strong teams on the ground - and of course many of them have been killed … we still have lots of people on the ground - they’re at the medical centres, they’re at the schools ... trying to assess needs,” Fletcher replied to a question on how the UN learned about this figure.

Fletcher said he hopes that 100 trucks well enter Gaza on Tuesday.

“It’ll be tough ... but we’ll load those up with baby food and our people will run those risks,” he added.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would allow basic aid into Gaza to prevent a “starvation crisis”.

Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin urged the West on Tuesday to "economically and strategically isolate" Israel to oppose the goal of "deporting" the population of Gaza.

"We are facing an Israeli plan ... After the reoccupation of Gaza, the second step will be deportation. The political objective of Benjamin Netanyahu and his government is the deportation of the population of Gaza, which is the hallmark of ethnic cleansing, of territorial cleansing," Dominique de Villepin told France Info radio.

He added: "The Europeans know this perfectly well, and they are there with wooden swords, even though there are three things that must be done immediately."

First, "immediately suspend the European agreement with Israel. Most of Israel's trade is with Europe. Second, impose an arms embargo on all European countries. Third, refer the entire Israeli government and key Israeli military authorities to the International Criminal Court ... by writing collectively to the court," he proposed.

"If you want to stop what is happening today, you must make it clear to Israel that there will be a before and an after," he added.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said on Tuesday that Gaza is probably facing its “worst humanitarian crisis since October 2023”.

In a post on X, Unrwa said: “For 11 weeks, Israeli authorities have deliberately blocked all supplies to Gaza. The only thing entering Gaza right now are bombs. Nowhere is safe.”

It added: “Intensified Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea have resulted in hundreds of casualties and mass displacement.”

Israeli forces have carried out several raids in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Wafa news agency reported.

The Palestinian news agency said Israeli troops have stormed several homes in the town of Anabta, in east of Tulkarem, and detained three young men.

In the town of Kobar, near Ramallah, two people were arrested, as Israeli forces closed the main entrance to a nearby town.

An elderly Palestinian was injured by Israeli live ammunition in al-Ein refugee camp near Nablus.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Tuesday that France backs a review of the EU's association agreement as part of "further action" being considered by the UK, France and Canada over Israel's war on Gaza.

The 1995 association agreement is the legal basis for Israel's relations with the EU, including diplomacy and trade.

Israel's easing of humanitarian aid access to Gaza is "totally insufficient ... Immediate and massive aid is needed," Barrot told France Inter radio.

He said Israel needed to ensure massive, immediate aid without any hindrance.

The leaders of Britain, Canada and France on Monday threatened sanctions against Israel if it does not stop a renewed military offensive in Gaza and lift aid restrictions, piling further pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Reporting by Reuters

Israel's far-right minister Bezlal Smotrich said the UK, Canada and France have “morally aligned themselves with a terrorist organisation that raped, slaughtered, murdered and burned women, babies, and children," and that "they have gone so far as to seek to reward terrorism by granting it a state."

His comments come after the leaders of the three countries issued a joined statement on Monday calling on Israel to bring the war in Gaza to a halt, warning that its “disproportionate” military operations in Gaza may be violating international law.

"Israel will not bow its head before this moral hypocrisy, antisemitism, and one-sidedness. It will continue its just and moral war until Hamas is destroyed, the hostages are returned, and the threat from the Gaza Strip to Israeli citizens is eliminated,” Smotrich said.

He added: "Israel will never agree to the establishment of a terrorist state in its midst that would endanger its existence and threaten the future of the Jewish people."

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says that it was terminating $60m in federal grants to Harvard University, saying the Ivy League institution failed to address antisemitic harassment and ethnic discrimination on campus.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has frozen or ended federal grants and contracts for the university worth nearly $3bn in recent weeks.

Since taking office in January, the Republican president has sought to use federal research funding to overhaul US academia, which he says has been gripped by anti-American, Marxist and “radical left” ideologies.

The administration has accused Harvard of continuing to consider ethnicity when reviewing student applications and of allowing discrimination against Jews as a result of the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian student protest movement that hit US campuses last year.

New York’s Columbia University has also been targeted over alleged antisemitism.

“Due to Harvard University’s continued failure to address antisemitic harassment and race discrimination, HHS is terminating multiple multi-year grant awards … over their full duration,” the health department said in a post on X.

Harvard University did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based institution has previously said it “cannot absorb the entire cost” of the frozen grants, and that it was working with researchers to help them find alternative funding. It is also suing the Trump administration over its decision to cut grants.

Reporting by Reuters

A petition signed by 761 aid groups and non-governmental organisations has urged countries around the world to break the Israeli siege on Gaza and send diplomatic humanitarian convoys through the Rafah crossing.

The move, which was initiated by Palestinian civil society groups on 12 May, received more than 300 signatures in one day, with the participation of prominent human rights groups including Human Rights Watch.

“We urge states to join the humanitarian convoy by dispatching official diplomatic missions - at the highest possible level - to accompany the aid trucks already waiting at the Rafah crossing, and to enter Gaza alongside them,” the petition states.

“This act is grounded in states’ legal obligations, moral courage, and human solidarity,” it adds.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

Here are some of the latest updates from Israel's war on Gaza:

 - At least 50 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the early hours of Tuesday, with the death toll from the shelling of a house in Jabalia in northern Gaza rising to nine people.

- The Israeli army said on X it has shot done a drone that was crossing the border from Egypt to Israel attempting to "smuggle weapons" on Monday night.

- At least 10 have been killed in a bombing that targeted Musa Bin Nusair School, sheltering displaced Palestinians, in Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

- Another Israeli strike on a petrol station in the Nuseirat refugee camp has killed at least 15 people.

- Canada, France and the United Kingdom have threatened sanctions against Israel if it does not end its renewed military offensive in Gaza and lift restrictions on aid.

- UN Women says an average of one girl and one woman are killed by Israeli attacks every hour, with more than 28,000 females now killed in the Strip since the war broke out in October 2023.

Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza has been left without its key power sources after Israeli forces targeted all three power generators, Al Jazeera reported on Momday.

“The hospital is now operating on backup energy from solar panel batteries, which are expected to last only a few more hours,” Hind Khoudary wrote in an update on X.

“Medical staff warn that patients in the intensive care unit are at imminent risk as power supplies dwindle.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was finally allowing food and water into Gaza for the first time in 11 weeks due to pressure from the US, reported Reuters on Monday.

Natanyahu said that he would allow nine trucks into the besieged strip for a population of more than two million people in a move that U.S. civil rights and advocacy organisation the Council on American-Islamic Relations called a “completely insufficient, psychotic PR stunt”

Netanyahu said that US senators who have been supporters of Israel for years have told him the terrible images of people being starved by Israel in Gaza have caused a loss of support and have brought Israel close “to a point where we might lose control”.

“It is for that reason, in order to achieve victory, we have to somehow solve the problem,” Netanyahu said in a message that appeared to be addressed to hardliners in his government.

A resolution was introduced by 29 US Senate Democrats last week urging the Trump administration to use “all diplomatic tools” to stop Israel’s blockade of Gaza and allow aid in.

“Children are starving to death. They’re starving to death as we are here comfortably debating what we think are important issues,” said Senator Peter Welch.

“And it must be the effort of all of us to do all we can to bring this siege and this war to an immediate end.”

“The Israeli government’s decision to let a trickle of aid into Gaza - reportedly only nine aid trucks in a day - will do nothing to relieve the threat of famine facing two million Palestinian men, women and children besieged in Gaza. This is a completely insufficient, psychotic PR stunt by Netanyahu’s genocidal government, which is determined to occupy and flatten Gaza, and then expel any Palestinians who survive. The genocide - and our nation’s support for that genocide - must end,” Cair said in a statement.

At least 84 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn, Al Jazeera reported .

Three staff members of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) were killed in Gaza, the UN announced during a press briefing on Monday.

The total number of staff killed is now over 300, the global organisation said.

“The vast majority of staff were killed by the Israeli Army with their children and loved ones: whole families wiped out,” Unrwa commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.

“Several were killed in the line of duty while serving their communities,” he added.

“Nothing justifies these killings,” Lazzarini said. “Impunity will lead to more killing. Those responsible must be held accountable.”

Unrwa has served Palestinian refugees since 1949, supporting nearly 5.9 million people across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.

Civil rights and advocacy organisation the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) called Israel’s plan to allow only nine aid trucks into Gaza a “completely insufficient, psychotic PR stunt” on Monday.

Israel said it would end its almost three-month blockade to allow aid into Gaza by allowing nine aid trucks into the strip on Monday. But Cair said the move was not enough.

“The Israeli government’s decision to let a trickle of aid into Gaza - reportedly only nine aid trucks in a day - will do nothing to relieve the threat of famine facing two million Palestinian men, women and children besieged in Gaza. This is a completely insufficient, psychotic PR stunt by Netanyahu’s genocidal government, which is determined to occupy and flatten Gaza, and then expel any Palestinians who survive. The genocide - and our nation’s support for that genocide - must end,” Cair said in a statement.

More than 53,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, have been killed in the Gaza strip since Israel started its war.