Israel kills two in Gaza in latest ceasefire violation as UNRWA says aid supplies have been blocked for eleven months

Two people were killed by the Israeli gunfire in the Jabalia area north of Gaza City on Friday morning, The New Arab’s sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported, as Israel continued its violations of the ceasefire, which has technically been in place since October last year.

On Thursday, two other people were killed in the south of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army. Medical sources said that one victim was found after Israel bombed the Maan area east of Khan Younis, while another died after succumbing to injuries sustained in an airstrike last week, also in the Khan Younis area.

The death toll from Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip rose to 71,851 killed and 171,626 wounded since October 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday. It added that since the ceasefire in October, 574 people had been killed and 1,518 injured in ongoing Israeli violations.

Also on Thursday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said that Israel had been continuing to block the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip since March last year, saying that humanitarian assistance meant for Gaza remained stuck in neighbouring countries.

Also on Thursday, five Palestinians were killed in east Jerusalem and northern Israel in criminal incidents, among an ongoing wave of crimes and accusations of deliberate inaction by Israeli authorities.

Aid still being held up by Israel

In a post on the X social media platform, UNRWA explained that its humanitarian supplies - including food items, hygiene supplies, medicines, and shelter materials - are still held in warehouses in Egypt and Jordan.

UNRWA stressed that, despite being held up by Israel for eleven months now, life-saving aid is ready to move, saying that there was no time to waste when it comes to saving lives in Gaza, and that the international community must not allow this situation to continue.

Under the ceasefire agreement, 600 aid trucks are supposed to enter the Gaza Strip daily, representing only the minimum needs of the territory's over 2 million inhabitants. However, Israel has prevented this, with less than half this number actually entering the devastated territory, whose population suffers from malnutrition and disease.

The UN agency had warned on Wednesday that the continued failure to operate the Rafah crossing at full capacity would keep the humanitarian situation in Gaza unchanged, without any real improvement at the required pace, meaning continued loss of life.

New flotilla initiative

Amid the desperate humanitarian situation, the Global Sumud Flotilla, which before the ceasefire tried to reach the besieged Gaza Strip several times, announced the launch of what it called “the largest relief movement in history” to break the Israeli siege by land and sea.

It said the initiative will begin next month, with the participation of thousands of activists from more than 100 countries.

The initiative will consist of launching a maritime fleet and a land-based humanitarian convoy simultaneously on March 29, 2026.

Five Palestinians killed in East Jerusalem, northern Israel

In occupied East Jerusalem, two men aged 30 and 40 were shot dead on Thursday evening in the Shueifat refugee camp, Haaretz reported.

Israeli police said that the incident was criminal in nature and they were searching for a suspect who had fled the scene. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in violation of international law after occupying it in 1967.

Earlier on Thursday, three men were shot dead outside their home in the Palestinian Bedouin village of Suweid Hamira in northern Israel. Two of them were killed instantly, while the third died later in a hospital in Haifa.

The killings come amid an ongoing crime wave in the Palestinian community in Israel.

Haaretz noted that a Palestinian citizen of Israel was killed once every 36 hours on average in 2025 – a total of 249 murders.

It said that the killings in the community had increased sharply ever since extreme-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir became national security minister in late 2022, even though the crime wave predates his appointment.

Ben-Gvir has been increasingly accused in Israel of deliberate inaction over crime in Palestinian communities, with some speculation that he intends to make life more difficult for Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, in order to force them to leave Israel.