Vivian Balakrishnan meets Jordan counterpart amid Singapore’s humanitarian aid mission for Gaza

HUMANITARIAN AID

The war began on Oct 7 when Hamas sent fighters into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s ground and air campaign has killed more than 31,500 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Israel says it has killed at least 13,000 Hamas members in the Gaza fighting.

The main United Nations aid agency in Gaza said on Saturday that acute malnutrition was accelerating in the north of the Palestinian enclave amid the war.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said one in three children under the age of two in northern Gaza is now acutely malnourished.

Air and sea relief deliveries into Gaza have started.

A first delivery into Gaza by the World Central Kitchen, pioneering a new sea route via Cyprus, arrived on Friday and was off-loaded, the charity said.

On Saturday, a second cargo of food aid was ready to depart by sea from Cyprus, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said, while the US and Jordan said they carried out an airdrop of humanitarian aid.

Israel has said it would send a delegation to Qatar for more talks with mediators after Hamas presented a new proposal for a ceasefire with an exchange of hostages and prisoners.