Deir Al-Balah (Gaza Strip) : The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says thousands of people broke into its Gaza aid warehouses to take food and other basic survival items. Thomas White, the agency's director in Gaza, said Sunday that the break-in was a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.
The agency, known as UNRWA, provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza. Its schools across the territory have been transformed into packed shelters housing Palestinians displaced by the conflict.
No international aid entered the Gaza Strip on Saturday, as the communications blackout created by Israel continued. Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, told The Associated Press that no aid trucks entered Gaza on Saturday because communication was impossible and teams inside Gaza couldn't connect with Egyptian Red Crescent or United Nations personnel.
Before Saturday, a total of 84 aid trucks were let into Gaza, a tiny amount for a population of 2.3 million people in need of power, food, medical supplies and clean drinking water.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Israel's ground invasion of Gaza on Monday afternoon at the request of the United Arab Emirates, the Arab representative on the council.
Internet and telephone connectivity has been restored for many people in Gaza, according to the telecoms company Paltel, Internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org and confirmation on the ground. The besieged Gaza Strip had suffered a communication blackout since late Friday, leaving its 2.3 million residents cut off from the outside world amid heavy Israeli air and land bombardment.
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier and its strike group has moved through the Strait of Gibraltar, putting two American carriers in the Mediterranean Sea, a rare sight in recent years. The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is already in the eastern Mediterranean, part of a buildup of forces as the U.S. supports Israel in its war against Hamas.
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The Eisenhower sailed into the Mediterranean on Saturday and is slated to move through the Suez Canal to the U.S. Central Command region as the American forces expand their presence in the Middle East to deter Iran and its proxy militant groups from trying to widen the war.
