A convoy carrying hundreds of activists arrives in Libya after driving from Algeria and crossing to Tunisia on its way to the Gaza Strip to challenge Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid in the territory.

Medics from United Hatzalah attend to the wounded at a building struck by a suspected Iranian missile in Israel. (Video: United Hatzalah.)

Israel’s use of aid as a weapon of war has provoked outrage. It has prevented essential supplies from entering Gaza. And yet its new effort to distribute aid is also proving deeply controversial. Hamas says it is a front for the idf. International aid organisations have decried it. What is this new network and what is it trying to do?

The war began when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage. They are still holding 53 captives, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that Hamas had threatened its workers, a claim the militant group denied, as the United Nations warned that Gazans were far from getting the food they need.

Israel’s blockade of Gaza may have been partially lifted – and a new US-backed plan to deliver aid has begun. But there are multiple indications that the plight of Gazans is rapidly worsening.

Drip-fed aid, a starving population and the most air strikes since October 7: Gaza’s growing crisis in numbers - IN FOCUS: Israel’s Operation Gideon’s Chariots has seen an escalation in attacks in Gaza.