Aid agencies in Gaza say the international community has not put enough pressure on Israel to ensure humanitarian support is safely delivered to Palestinians.
Save the Children team leader Karyn Beattie is on the frontline of the Gaza humanitarian disaster.
She says the job is often heartbreaking and frustrating.
"I'm at a loss a lot of days. I do feel a bit overwhelmed. I think we're doing the best we can here," Ms Beattie said.
Israel has denied blocking the entry of aid, but Ms Beattie said requests to get aid through were constantly rejected, at a time when UN experts say famine looms, and many children face severe malnutrition.
"They're really simple things and there's — as far as I can tell — no particular reason to block them," Ms Beattie said.
Last year marked the deadliest year for aid workers, with about 200 killed in Gaza amidst widespread bombardment and civilian deaths in a war that has raged for six months.
Just this month, a series of Israeli air strikes killed seven international aid workers with World Central Kitchen (WCK) — including Australian Zomi Frankcom, with the agency pausing its operations in response.
The WCK founder José Andrés said Israel targeted the aid workers "systematically, car by car".
While the workers coordinated their movements with the IDF and travelled in clearly marked vehicles, the Israeli military blamed "misidentification" and described the attack as a "grave mistake".
The IDF said a gunman was seen on the vehicle, a claim that has not been substantiated.
Ms Beattie said she did not have confidence that Israel was doing enough to ensure that she and her colleagues could safely do their jobs, even when using the systems provided to them.
"It … made us nervous, because we all know that the World Central Kitchen network were really good at coordinating their movements," she said.
Ms Beattie said she didn't think the international response to the deaths was strong enough.
"Not at all, particularly the countries that are selling arms to Israel … Is it OK that those arms could possibly have killed their own citizens," she said.
Calls to investigate all aid worker deaths
Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is calling for independent investigations into all aid worker deaths in Gaza — including five of its own staff killed while providing aid.
MSF has raised concern about what it describes as the "same pattern of deliberate attacks on humanitarian [workers]", something Israeli officials have repeatedly denied.
MSF's head of programs in Australia and New Zealand, Simon Eccleshall, said the level of safety for aid workers in the region was highly problematic.
"Gaza is currently the most dangerous context in the world for an aid worker," Mr Eccleshall said.
"Israel is doing next to nothing to protect aid workers in this conflict."
Mr Eccleshall also said there was strong evidence humanitarian workers are being deliberately targeted, which Israel also denies.
"The evidence is quite clear in many of these cases that the attacks have been perpetrated by the Israeli forces — the harassment, the forced evacuations, the detainment, the arrest, the abuse," he said.
Unimpeded access needed
Before Hamas's October 7 attack, more than 60 per cent of Gaza's population was dependent on international aid.
Data from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees shows an average of 161 aid trucks passed into Gaza every day last month, far below the target of 500 trucks.
Following the strike on the aid convoy, Israel pledged to open a crossing in the north, and started allowing more aid across the border.
It said on Wednesday 298 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were inspected and transferred to the Gaza strip.
Simon Eccleshall from MSF also warned the air drops of food aid from countries including the United States, and international plans to open a maritime routes, were additional "dangerous" and "insufficient" channels.
"These are really a distraction from the main issue here which is Israel preventing aid to come across the land borders," he said.
"We've got adequate amounts of food and other supplies stockpiled waiting, queuing up at the borders in Egypt, and in Israel, that could avert humanitarian disaster."
UNICEF communication manager Ricardo Pires said his colleagues on the ground did not feel safe to operate, warning the world was not responding with enough urgency.
"What we're seeing right now is absolute bloodbath. Hospitals are flooded … with children who've lost their limbs, their parents, their hopes, their livelihoods, their right to go to school, their right to survive," he said.
"Those stories keep coming. I talk to colleagues on the ground on a daily basis who are in Gaza risking their lives to deliver aid, to tell the stories to the world."
For months, aid workers and Palestinians have only been able to rely on two entry points, including the Rafah crossing with Egypt and Kerem Shalom with Israel.
Both crossings are in the south of Gaza.
Mr Pires said it made the situation for those in the north increasingly dire.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday 11 trucks from the World Food Programme were coordinated through a crossing into Northern Gaza.
Aid agencies say a lot more is needed.
Ms Beattie from Save the Children said while she did not always feel safe to do her job, there were moments of hope — however fleeting.
"At the moment, it's windy, so all the boys are flying kites. They insist that I fly their kites with them for a bit, which I love doing. It's probably my favourite part of the day … I talk to them and we have a bit of a laugh," she said.
"They're just children doing what children do. But the reality is that when it gets dark, there'll probably be air strikes and shelling and sounds that children shouldn't have to be dealing with."
Editor's note 12/4/24: This story has been amended to add updated information about aid into Gaza and Israel's response to the strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy.
