Five trucks of humanitarian aid, including baby food, entered the Gaza Strip Monday via the Kerem Shalom Crossing, Israel said, marking the first such delivery since March 2, when Israel barred goods from entering the territory.
The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said the aid delivery came “following the recommendation of professional IDF officials and in accordance with the directive of the political echelon.”
“All aid was transferred following a thorough security inspection by personnel from the Ministry of Defense’s Crossing Points Authority,” it said.
Eden Bar Tal, the Foreign Ministry’s director general, said the shipment included flour, baby food, and medical supplies.
“Today, Israel is facilitating the entry of trucks with baby food into Gaza,” Bar Tal told reporters, adding that “in the coming days, Israel will facilitate the entry of dozens of aid trucks.”
Aid was blocked from Gaza since March 1, with Israel arguing that sufficient humanitarian assistance entered the Strip during a six-week ceasefire and that Hamas has been stealing much of that aid, with the blockade necessary to pressure the terror group to release dozens of hostages it is holding. In recent weeks, however, some officials in the IDF have begun warning the political leadership that the enclave was on the brink of starvation.
Palestinians receive meals from volunteers in Deir al-Balah, in the Gaza Strip, on April 19, 2025. (Ali Hassan/ Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the immediate resumption of “basic” humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening, making a highly unpopular decision among his right-wing circles given mounting pressure from Washington to end the blockade.
United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said the amount of aid that entered Monday was “a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed, and significantly more aid must be allowed into Gaza, starting tomorrow morning.”
“To reduce looting, there must be a regular flow of aid, and humanitarians must be permitted to use multiple routes. Commercial goods should complement the humanitarian response,” he said.
Meanwhile, media outlets in Gaza published footage showing large numbers of residents leaving the Khan Younis area on foot, after the military declared the entire city a combat zone and urged residents to flee earlier Monday.
نزوح بعض الأهالي من شارع الجلاء في خانيونس
مع نزوح مستمر حتى بدون خريطة إخلائات في مخيم جباليا يحدث على مدار الساعة pic.twitter.com/m45OJlv70Y— م.ي.بن رجب (@YahyaBenrjab1) May 19, 2025
According to Al Arabiya, thousands of residents have already begun evacuating.
In recent weeks, there has been relatively low compliance with IDF evacuation orders in Gaza, according to both residents’ testimonies and UNRWA data on the number of evacuees.
#صور | نزوح فلسطينيين إلى وسط وغرب مدينة خانيونس بعد أن أجبرهم جيش الاحتلال على إخلاء مناطق بني سهيلا وعبسان بخانيونس جنوبي قطاع غزة ظهر اليوم pic.twitter.com/ryr4lWDohz
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) May 19, 2025
Media outlets also published footage showing hundreds of protesters in Khan Younis, demonstrating against Hamas and calling for an end to the war.
Protesters chanted: “Stop the war and the displacement! Hamas out!”
This marks the first anti-Hamas protest in Khan Younis in several weeks. Sporadic demonstrations have occurred in the Strip’s northern parts in recent weeks.
مسيرات ضخمة تخرج الان في كافة مناطق وشوارع خانيونس جنوب قطاع غزة تطالب بايقاف الحرب بشكل فوري وباي ثمن #اوقفوا_الحرب pic.twitter.com/sWWCuXWh9l
— زاهر ابو حسين (@ZAHERABUHUSIEN) May 19, 2025
Also, the IDF said it carried out an airstrike on Hamas operatives at a command center in central Gaza’s Nuseirat earlier Monday.
According to Palestinian media, the strike hit a school currently being used as shelter for displaced Gazans, killing at least nine.
According to the IDF, the site was being used by Hamas operatives to plan and carry out attacks on troops and Israeli civilians.
The military said it took steps to mitigate civilian harm, including by using a precision munition, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence.
#محدث | مستشفى العودة النصيرات:
وصل المشفى 5 شهداء بينهم سيدة وفتاة بالإضافة إلى 18 إصابة غالبيتهم من الأطفال جراء قصف طائرات الاحتلال “الإسرائيلي” مدرسة تؤوي نازحين في منطقة الحساينة بمخيم النصيرات وسط قطاع غزة. pic.twitter.com/F6UUWW83Zz
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) May 19, 2025
Additionally, the IDF released footage from the opening strikes of its new offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots.”
Hundreds of targets were hit since Friday, including tunnels, weapon depots, anti-tank missile launch posts, terror operatives, and other infrastructure, the military said.
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said 52 people had been killed in Israeli attacks on Monday across the territory.
Khan Younis resident Mohammed Sarhan told AFP that Gaza’s main southern city “felt like the apocalypse.”
“There was gunfire coming from every apartment, fire belts, F-16 warplanes, and helicopters firing,” he said.
AFPTV footage showed a helicopter over the city, while at Nasser Hospital, a young boy in a tracksuit was being treated, as two other boys, both barefoot and bleeding, sat on the floor.
Further north in Deir el-Balah, Ayman Badwan mourned the loss of his brother in an attack.
“We are exhausted and drained — we can’t take it anymore,” he told AFP.
IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued by the military on May 19, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
According to Israeli officials, the fresh offensive would see the IDF “conquer” Gaza, raze the vast majority of buildings and retain the territory for the foreseeable future; attack Hamas and prevent it from taking control of humanitarian aid supplies; and move Palestinians from Gaza’s north to its south.
On Monday, a US official denied a Washington Post report citing an unnamed source who claimed that the Trump administration would abandon Israel if it kept the war going in Gaza.
The US official said that there may be disagreements, but “the idea that we would abandon Israel is preposterous.”
“Trump’s people are letting Israel know, ‘We will abandon you if you do not end this war,’” the source told The Post. “Politically, as in the past, Netanyahu has a way to do that, with a huge majority in the Knesset and in Israel, but he does not have the political will.”
Hundreds of Gazans have been killed in Israeli strikes since the initial stages of the operation were launched on Friday, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the war so far.
The tolls cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January, and another 1,600 terrorists inside the country during the October 7 onslaught, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
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