TRANSCRIPT
Between debris and the destroyed walls of their Rafah home, a Palestinian family broke their fast on the third day of Ramadan on Wednesday.
Um Mahmoud Abu Rizek says a lack of food this year means they haven't been able to hold their normally joyful, festive Iftar meals.
She says the holy month has also been marked by remembrance of those who have been killed in Gaza since October the 7th.
"Last Ramadan was great but this year it's not. A lot of things are not there anymore - my sisters, my family, our house got destroyed, there are still people under the rubble and they are still not pulled out - this house was the children's dream, their toys and everything else is lost."
Gaza's health ministry says more than 31,200 people have been killed and more than 73,000 injured in Israeli military offensives on Gaza since Hamas militants killed 1200 people and took 253 hostages in attacks on southern Israel, according to Israeli figures.
Palestinian health officials say the numbers now include at least five people killed and 22 others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a food distribution centre in Rafah for the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA.
Israel says it was targeting a Hamas commander, Muhammad Abu Hasna, named among those killed, who Hamas says was the deputy head of police operations in Rafah.
UNRWA employee Sami Abu Salim expressed shock over the targeting of one of the few remaining UNRWA centres, in an area where more than half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million is sheltering.
"We are in an internationally protected headquarters. How can the occupation planes target a place like this? We are defenceless people. We are here to deliver aid to the displaced. There are people from the north who came here. This is the United Nations headquarters. There must be protection for it, and we are meant to be working here under the protection of the United Nations."
Speaking about the incident, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said humanitarian workers need to be able to do their jobs with as much security and confidence as possible.
"The Israeli military, the Israeli government have a responsibility and obligation to do everything possible to ensure that the humanitarians can do their jobs. And among other things, that means making sure that if there's a humanitarian facility that's clearly identified, it's not struck."
UNRWA's ability to deliver aid has been limited since several countries followed the US in suspending funding, after Israeli allegations staff members had collaborated with Hamas, the subject of an independent U-N investigation.
Multiple countries, including the US and Germany, have begun air-dropping aid into Gaza during the first few days of Ramadan.
And Mr Blinken says the US is working with representatives of Cyprus, the UAE, Qatar, the UK, EU and UN to discuss the creation of a new maritime corridor.
A vessel operated by US charity World Central Kitchen has already left Cyprus for Gaza, where work continues on a jetty from which the ship will offload its 200 tons of food.
The charity's Juan Camilo Jimenez says work is already underway on loading a second vessel, which will carry even more aid.
"Here we are preparing different types of food products that can resist the conditions of the sea and a long journey. Choosing the best products, organizing them in pallets, packing them in the best way how they can be secure and safe during the travel. And eventually these almost 400 tons, 400 pallets, are going to be travelling on a second boat very soon."
Israel has sought to emphasise its support for the delivery of aid, including through sea and air drops, following an incident which saw Israeli troops open fire on crowds trying to get food supplies from a convoy of trucks.
The government said that under Israeli supervision the United Nations used a new land route to deliver food to northern Gaza for the first time in three weeks on Wednesday.
And Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has visited Gaza, where he says he is monitoring work on the maritime corridor to ensure aid coming by sea will not help Hamas.
"The humanitarian issue that will soon be on the agenda around the expected arrival of vessels is a central issue in order to allow supply to the civilians and not to Hamas. Every action of this kind, weakens Hamas and strengthen our control."
After more than five months of war, aid agencies have warned that Gaza's population face a growing risk of famine unless food supplies are stepped up sharply.
Efforts for a ceasefire have stalled, with Israel saying it plans to push ahead with a controversial offensive on Rafah, originally planned for the start of Ramadan, by moving the people sheltering there to "humanitarian islands" in central Gaza.
But Mr Blinken has continued to lay the blame on Hamas, saying it had been offered a "very strong proposal" to free the around 100 hostages remaining in Gaza and increase aid.
"The question is - will Hamas take it? Does Hamas want to end the suffering that it's provoked? The question is there. But I can tell you that we're intensely engaged every single day, almost every single hour with Qatar, with Egypt, to see if we can get a ceasefire agreement."
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borell, being hosted by the US Secretary of State in Washington, said he echoed Mr Blinken's condemnation of the suffering in Gaza, but words were not enough.
"We have to do more than just deplore on which we both agree. I think that we need to act for the very survival of the population in Gaza, (which) is at stake today. I once again thank you for your personal efforts, and then we need to clear the humanitarian access to sea, by air. That's good. That's not enough. You cannot replace hundreds of trucks by sending parachutes. The most important thing is to open the borders by land and continue working or start working on a two state solution that both of us US and EU endorse. It is the only way for a lasting peace."
