Shortly after bombing a United Nations food distribution center on Wednesday, March 13, the Israeli army announced that it was preparing to "flood" the enclave with food aid, symbolizing the contradictions of Israel providing aid to civilians in Gaza. The army had allegedly targeted a Hamas official in the center, whom it accused of "diverting equipment" to the Islamist movement. It struck the courtyard of one of the few remaining operational buildings in Rafah belonging to the UNRWA, the main UN agency providing aid to Palestinians. One agency employee was killed and 22 others were injured.

These casualties came in addition to the 165 UNRWA staff members killed since the start of the war. Israel has deemed this agency, which provides aid to Gaza's refugees, to be an offshoot of Hamas. Since January, Israel has undertaken efforts to destroy this institution, which used to run most of Gaza's schools before the war and which has used its network and logistics to help other UN agencies in this crisis.

Israel's direct financial, administrative and military pressure on UNRWA convoys – as well as on those of other agencies – has contributed to chaos and food shortages in the enclave, where "pockets of imminent famine" are developing, according to the UN. But, under pressure from the United States on Wednesday, Israel announced two measures to change its policy. Its army promised to secure the area around a floating bridge, which the US has planned to construct on Gaza's coast within – at best – 60 days, so that aid can be brought in by sea. Israel has also announced opening an entry point for aid to Gaza city and the northern half of the enclave, claiming to ease the siege on its 300,000 destitute inhabitants. The entry point would be located at the entrance to a newly expanded military corridor, which cuts the enclave down the middle and prevents any movement of people between its northern and southern halves.

On Tuesday, an initial test convoy by the World Food Program (WFP) was authorized to deliver a shipment. Fuel was also delivered to the Al-Shifa Hospital. In February, the UN had given up on carrying out such deliveries from the south of the enclave, after two convoys chartered by the WFP and the UNRWA had been looted by starving people and struck by the Israeli navy.

Both measures were announced by Israel's army, and not by its government, which has become deeply divided over aid and fearful of public pressure. For the past three months, the military hierarchy has been calling on the government to conclude a political agreement to enable the Gaza Strip to be handed over to them and for aid to be distributed by a Palestinian entity, something which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to mention.

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