Netanyahu promises new Gaza aid delivery plan as supplies still fail to reach Palestinians

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The U.N. said Wednesday it was trying to get the desperately needed aid that has entered Gaza this week into the hands of Palestinians amid delays because of fears of looting and Israeli military restrictions. Israeli strikes pounded the territory, killing at least 86 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the country is days away from implementing a new aid system in Gaza that has come under heavy international criticism. He said Israel later plans to create a “sterile zone” there, free of Hamas, where the population, which has repeatedly evacuated and relocated throughout the war, would be moved and receive supplies.

With renewed ceasefire talks appearing to make little progress, Netanyahu said he will end the war only if Hamas releases all hostages and steps down from power — and if President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate the territory's population outside Gaza is implemented. The Palestinians, along with nearly all of the international community, have rejected Trump’s plan to empty Gaza of its Palestinian population and place the territory under U.S. control.

Under international pressure, Israel has allowed dozens of aid trucks into Gaza after blocking all food, medicine, fuel and other material for nearly three months. But the supplies have been sitting on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the majority of supplies that had entered since Monday had been loaded onto U.N. trucks, but they could not take them out of the crossing area. He said the road the Israeli military had given them permission to use was too unsafe.

A U.N. official later said more than a dozen trucks that left the crossing area arrived at warehouses in central Gaza on Wednesday night. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

Israel said 100 trucks had crossed into Gaza on Wednesday.

Food security experts have warned that Gaza risks falling into famine unless the blockade ends. Malnutrition and hunger have been mounting. Aid groups ran out of food to distribute weeks ago, and most of the population of around 2.3 million relies on communal kitchens whose supplies are nearly depleted.

At a kitchen in Gaza City, a charity group distributed watery lentil soup.

Somaia Abu Amsha scooped small portions for her family, saying they have not had bread for over 10 days and she can’t afford rice or pasta.

“We don’t want anything other than that they end the war. We don’t want charity kitchens. Even dogs wouldn’t eat this, let alone children,” she said.

Aid groups say the small amount of aid that Israel has allowed is far short of what is needed. About 600 trucks entered daily under the latest ceasefire.

Israel has said its slight easing of the blockade is a bridge until the new aid system it demands is put in place. The U.N. and other humanitarian groups have rejected the system, saying it enables Israel to use aid as a weapon and forcibly displace the population.

Netanyahu told reporters the plan will begin “in coming days.”

He said in a later phase, the “sterile zone” in southern Gaza would be free of Hamas and the population would be moved there “for the purposes of its safety.” There, they would receive aid, “and then they enter – and they don’t necessarily go back.”

The plan involves small number of distribution hubs directed by a private, U.S.-backed foundation known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Armed private contractors would guard the distribution.

Israel says the system is needed because Hamas siphons off significant amounts of aid. The U.N. denies that claim.

Initially, four hubs are being built, one in central Gaza and three at the far southern end of the strip, where few people remain.

A GHF spokesman said the group would never participate in or support any form of forced relocation of civilians. The spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with the group’s rules. said there was no limit to the number of sites and additional sites will open, including in the north, within the next month.

Israeli troops fired warning shots as a group of international diplomats was visiting the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Footage showed a number of diplomats giving media interviews as rapid shots ring out nearby, forcing them to run for cover. No one was reported injured.

The Israeli military said their visit had been approved, but the delegation “deviated from the approved route.” The military said it apologized and will contact the countries involved in the visit.

The soldiers' actions were roundly criticized as officials from Italy, Austria and Germany were among those demanding that Israel investigate what happened. Foreign ministers in Canada and France called for the Israeli ambassador to be summoned to provide an explanation.

Israeli troops have raided Jenin dozens of times as part of a crackdown across the West Bank. The fighting displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Early Thursday, sirens sounded across Israel as its military said it intercepted a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack, though it can take hours or days for them to acknowledge their assaults.

Currently, after supplies enter at Kerem Shalom, aid workers are required to unload them and reload them onto their own trucks for distribution.

Antoine Renard, the World Food Program’s country chief for Palestine, said 78 trucks were waiting. He told The Associated Press that “we need to ensure that we will not be looted.”

Looting has plagued aid deliveries in the past, and at times of desperation people have swarmed aid trucks, taking supplies.

A U.N. official and another humanitarian worker said the Israeli military had designated a highly insecure route known to have looters. The military also set a short window for trucks to come to Kerem Shalom and rejected a number of individual truck drivers, forcing last-minute replacements, they said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing aid for Gaza, did not immediately respond when asked for comment.

Israeli strikes continued across Gaza. In the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel recently ordered new evacuations pending an expanded offensive, 24 people were killed, 14 from the same family. A week-old infant was killed in central Gaza. In the evening, a strike hit a house in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, killing two children and their parents, according to hospital officials.

The Israeli military did not comment on the strikes. It says it targets Hamas infrastructure and accuses Hamas militants of operating from civilian areas.

Israeli troops also have surrounded two of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals, preventing anyone from leaving or entering the facilities, hospital staff and aid groups said this week.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third believed to be alive, after most were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has destroyed large swaths of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations, Fatma Khaled in Cairo, Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut and Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

Aid trucks carrying food arrive at a World Food Program warehouse in Zawaida, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Smoke rises from an Israeli army airstrike south of Khan Younis, Gaza, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (Ronen Zvulun/Pool Photo via AP)

Smoke rises following an Israeli army bombardment in the Gaza Strip, seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Palestinian carry the bodies of their relatives including children who were killed in an Israeli army airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A truck loaded with humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip makes its way to the Kerem Shalom crossing as border police officers prevent activists from blocking the road in southern Israel, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

An activist stands on a concrete block signaling border ahead as she waves an Israeli flag towards trucks loaded with humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Palestinians inspect a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrikes in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinian carry the bodies of their relatives including children who were killed in an Israeli army airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians inspect a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrikes in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.

A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.

The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”

Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.

Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)