U.N. humanitarian deliveries to Gaza were delayed again on Friday due to gasoline shortages and a communications blockade. This added to the suffering of thousands of Palestinians who are hungry and without homes as Israeli soldiers fought Hamas terrorists in the enclave of Gaza.

The World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations stated that the civilian population had an “immediate possibility of starvation” due to insufficient food supplies.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA said that an Israeli attack that targeted a group of displaced individuals near the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt—the transit point for relief—resulted in the deaths of many Palestinians and the injuries of others.

According to the reports that Al Jazeera T.V. mentioned, nine people lost their lives in the strike. Israel did not immediately state this in response to the claimed strike, and Reuters could not independently verify the information.

In related news, Israel said that its soldiers had discovered a tunnel shaft that Hamas was utilizing at the Al Shifa hospital located in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

This week, a significant amount of attention and worry has been directed at the hospital, overflowing with patients and people forced to flee their homes. Israel claims that Hamas has hidden weapons and ammunition, as well as captives, in a network of tunnels that run underneath hospitals like Shifa. Patients and others seeking hospital safety use these tunnels as human shields. Hamas has denied these claims.

The conflict is about to enter its seventh week. Despite appeals from around the world for a ceasefire or, at the very least, for humanitarian pauses, there is little indication that it will end any time soon.

On October 7, terrorists from Hamas crossed into Israel and carried out an attack that resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of whom were civilians. This attack marked the single worst day in the state’s history, which is now 75 years old.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, a total of over 11,500 Palestinians, including at least 4,700 children, have been murdered as a result of Israel’s retaliatory military attack on Hamas-ruled Gaza. This death toll is far higher than that of any other incident of violence that has occurred in recent years.

Israel has sworn to eradicate the terrorist organization. Aid organizations report that entire neighborhoods in Gaza have been obliterated as a result of air and artillery assaults, that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been compelled to evacuate their homes, and that the current humanitarian situation is dire.

TRUCKS ARE CURRENTLY ON HOLD

Due to a lack of available gasoline and disruptions in communication, the United Nations has announced that no humanitarian operation will cross international borders on Friday. Because there was not enough gasoline to power the distribution of supplies, no aid vehicles could enter Gaza on Thursday for the second day in a row.

Cindy McCain, executive director of the WFP, stated that virtually everyone required urgent assistance with their food supply. “Supplies of food and water are practically non-existent in Gaza, and only a fraction of what is needed is arriving through the borders,” she stated in a prepared statement.

“With winter fast approaching, unsafe and overcrowded shelters, and the lack of clean water, civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation,” Senator McCain stated.

Israel is close to eliminating Hamas’ military apparatus in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the chief of staff of the Israeli military. There are indicators that the army is moving its assault to other regions of the coastal enclave, home to 2.3 million people.

Israel has accused Hamas of blocking Palestinians from traveling to the southern part of the Gaza Strip; however, Hamas has disputed these allegations.

The Israeli military has distributed a video that it claims shows an entry to a tunnel in an outside section of Al Shifa, which is Gaza’s largest hospital.

The video, the integrity of which Reuters could not confirm at the time of publication, appeared to show a large crater in the ground littered with concrete, wood, and sand debris. It seemed as though the place had been dug up previously. The scene suddenly shifted to reveal a bulldozer.

The army reported that its forces discovered a truck inside the hospital that was stocked with a significant amount of weapons.

Since more than twenty-four hours ago, journalists working for Reuters have been unable to communicate with anyone within Shifa Hospital.

Hamas stated on Thursday that assertions made by the United States that the organization utilizes Shifa for military objectives are “a repetition of a blatantly false narrative, demonstrated by the weak and ridiculous performances of the occupation army spokesman.” Hamas referred to the performances as “the weak and ridiculous performances of the occupation army spokesman.”

Officials from Israel had asserted that Hamas was holding some of the 240 hostages that gunmen had kidnapped on October 7 from the hospital complex.

On Friday, the Israeli military said that forces had recovered the body of a female soldier who had been kept hostage in a property close to Shifa. The body was found in the basement of the building.

The IDF went ahead and confirmed that she had passed away on Tuesday after Hamas released a video of her while she was still alive and then images of what it claimed to be her body following an Israeli hit.

On Thursday, military personnel found the body of another female prisoner who had been held captive in a building in the area of Shifa.

Hamas’s Al-Quds Brigades announced on Friday that they had battled Israeli soldiers for many hours in the city of Jenin during the nighttime hours leading up to Friday, releasing a “torrent of fire” and setting ambushes with explosives. Jenin is located in the West Bank, which is under Israeli occupation.

According to statements made by the Israeli military, warplanes were used to strike terrorists in Jenin who had opened fire on Israeli forces. It was reported that at least five of the militants had been put to death.

At least 178 Palestinians have died in the West Bank since the attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7. Fears that the area, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War, may spin out of control in conjunction with the crisis in Gaza have been exacerbated as a result of the bloodshed there.