THE crisis in Gaza continued to worsen today as Israel maintained its blockage on desperately needed humanitarian aid reaching starving Palestinians.

This comes as two Israel-based human rights groups accuse Israel of committing genocide.

Israel announced on Sunday that the military would put in place a “humanitarian pause” on its operations in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi for 10 hours a day until further notice to allow for the improved flow of aid to Palestinians in Gaza, where concern over hunger has grown given the crippling blockade its military imposes on the territory.

But it said it would continue military operations alongside the new humanitarian measures. Agencies have welcomed the new aid measures, which also included allowing airdrops into Gaza, but say they were nowhere near enough to counter rising starvation.

Images of emaciated children have sparked international outrage, including from Israel’s allies. 

US President Donald Trump met Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday at one of his Scottish golf courses, with the PM reportedly pressing Mr Trump on the issue.

On his way into the meeting Sir Keir called the situation in Gaza “desperate.”

President Trump was asked if he agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks about concerns of mass starvation in Gaza being overstated and replied: “I don’t know. I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.”

Sir Keir said: “I think people in Britain are revolted at seeing what they are seeing on their screens,” but is still refusing to halt arms sales to Israel.

President Trump said Israel “has a lot of responsibility” for what’s happening but said the country is hampered by considerations of the remaining hostages it wants to see kept alive and freed.

“I think Israel can do a lot,” Mr Trump said, without offering more information.

But in Gaza Israeli jets reportedly continued to circle the enclave today despite what Tel Aviv describes as a “humanitarian pause.”

Some observers have branded the humanitarian pauses a “complete fraud” and accused the Israelis of helping criminal gangs ransack aid trucks intended for starving Gazans.

Top English playwright Peter Oswald and long-serving volunteer for The Hands Up project in Gaza made the comments as he met with Laila Hajabed, whom he helped flee from the Gaza Strip in May 2023.

Citing close relatives who witnessed the first day of the aid drops, Ms Hajabed told the Morning Star that “people are turning into zombies” as all 300 of the trucks Israel claimed had delivered food to Gazans were ransacked by criminal gangs.

Gazans were told to wait for aid within designated “white zones” which will be clear of Israeli ground troops during the pauses, she explained.

Criminal gangs were however seen being allowed into the Israeli Defence Forces’ so-called “red zones” where the trucks would pass beforehand.

Ms Hajabed, who is studying at the University of Debrecen in Hungary, said: “Israel is allowing them to go inside. They steal all of the food from the trucks. They take everything.

“What was on the news was that 300 trucks are going to go into Gaza but what actually happened was 30 trucks entered.”

She said that all of the 30 trucks were ransacked.

“They want to kill us and make us kill each other,” she added.

“It’s like an excuse for the world that ‘we got them food and they are just doing this to each other’.”

Ms Hajabed joined calls for Britain to join the majority of countries worldwide that recognise the state of Palestine.

“If we are defined as a state it’s going to help us — strengthen the place of Palestine in international laws and it’s going to be a state against a state,” she said after learning that the Cabinet was being recalled by the Prime Minister this week to discuss the situation in Gaza.

The World Health Organisation says nearly one in five children below five years of age is now acutely malnourished.

Sam Rose, the acting director for the United Nations body for Palestinian refugees in Gaza (UNRWA,) said the flow of aid into the enclave was “not enough.”

“This has clearly been part of an approach of manufactured starvation over several months.

“First of all, you [Israel] limit the supply of aid coming in, or you completely block it. Second, you criticise the organisations whose job it is to provide that aid, the UN organisations — whose job is made far more difficult by the controls that Israel imposes.

“And then the next stage of this is to frame humanitarian aid itself as part of the problem.” Mr Rose added that while “we very much welcome these initial steps to increase the flow of aid,” it was “not enough.”

The pause has done little to reduce the rate of killing by Israeli military action in Gaza. The Gaza Health Ministry said that at least 43 Palestinians were killed today.

Meanwhile, a report published today by two leading human rights groups, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, accuses Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

The report outlines crimes including the killing of tens of thousands of women, children and elderly people, mass forced displacement and starvation, and the destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure that have deprived Palestinians of healthcare, education and other basic rights.

The death toll in Gaza from the war is approaching 60,000, or more than 2.5 per cent of the pre-war population. 

Yuli Novak, the director of B’Tselem, said: “What we see is a clear, intentional attack on civilians in order to destroy a group.”

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) gave a chronological account of the assault on Gaza’s health system, with many details documented directly by the group’s own team, which worked regularly in Gaza before October 7.

PHR’s director Guy Shalev said the destruction of the healthcare system alone makes the war genocidal under Article 2c of the genocide convention, which prohibits deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy a group “in whole or part.”

Ms Novak said the genocide “couldn’t happen without the support of the Western world. 

“Any leader that is not doing whatever they can to stop it is part of this horror.”

Israel denies it is carrying out a genocide.