UN agency says aid warehouse hit in Gaza Strip

GAZA/WASHINGTON — The main UN aid agency in Gaza said an Israeli strike on Wednesday hit one of its warehouses, killing an employee, as calls intensified for land routes to bring food into the besieged territory.

"At least one UNRWA staff member was killed and another 22 were injured when Israeli forces hit a food distribution center in the eastern part of Rafah" in southern Gaza, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said in a statement.

The agency's chief, Philippe Lazzarini, said the "attack on one of the very few remaining UNRWA distribution centers in the Gaza Strip comes as food supplies are running out, hunger is widespread and, in some areas, turning into famine".

Israel later said a Hamas militant was killed in a strike on Rafah, naming him as Muhammad Abu Hasna, one of four people the Gaza health ministry said were killed in the strike on the UNRWA facility.

Donor nations, aid agencies and charities have pushed on with efforts to rush food to the impoverished territory of 2.4 million people, where more than five months of conflict have caused mass civilian deaths and reduced vast areas to a rubble-strewn wasteland.

Efforts to open a maritime corridor or airdrop aid were no alternative to aid delivery by land as they could only provide a fraction of the needs, said a statement by 25 organizations.

Trying an alternative land route from southern Israel, the UN World Food Programme sent an initial six aid trucks on Tuesday into worst-hit northern Gaza through a gate in the security fence, the Israeli army said.

Rafah, on Gaza's southern border with Egypt, has remained the coastal territory's last population center spared an Israeli ground operation, and Israeli officials have threatened to send ground troops into the city.

Meanwhile, the Israeli parliament on Wednesday approved a revised budget for 2024 to fund the country's fighting in Gaza.

According to the finance ministry, the updated budget stands at about 584 billion shekels (about $161 billion), an increase of 70 billion shekels compared to the original budget approved in May last year.

Widespread protests

In the United States, hundreds of protesters demanding a cease-fire in Gaza and calling for an end to US military assistance for Israel, blocked the international terminal at the San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday.

Footage from the scene showed them carrying banners with messages such as "Permanent Cease-fire Now", "Stop the World for Gaza" and "Stop Arming Israel". An ABC News affiliate put the number of demonstrators at more than 300.

Protests demanding a cease-fire in Gaza have occurred in many US cities, including near airports and bridges in New York City and Los Angeles, as well as holding vigils outside the White House and marches in Washington. The US has long rejected calls for a permanent cease-fire.

Agencies - Xinhua