Israel’s blockade of Gaza may have been partially lifted – and a new US-backed plan to deliver aid has begun. But there are multiple indications that the plight of Gazans is rapidly worsening.

Restrictions imposed by the Israeli military on aid routes, ongoing airstrikes, a lack of security and the continuous displacement of tens of thousands of people are aggravating an already alarming situation, according to the UN and other aid agencies. The supplies that do get in risk getting looted.

“People in Gaza are starving. This demands the urgent opening of all crossings and allowing unimpeded access for humanitarian organizations to deliver aid at scale, through multiple routes,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest assessment.

The number of children in Gaza with acute malnutrition is rising, the UN reported Saturday, while a lack of fuel threatens to close hospitals that are still operating.

The Israeli agency handling the inspection of aid going into Gaza, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said Saturday that 350 trucks containing humanitarian aid had entered the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the last week – less than 20 per cent of the volume of goods getting into Gaza before the conflict.

And even the aid that gets in frequently does not make it to the most desperate. UN agencies report continuing difficulties with getting distribution routes within Gaza agreed with the Israeli military. OCHA said that out of 16 truckloads ready for distribution last Thursday, five were rejected, including fuel and water, and six failed to reach their destination.

Additionally, the looting of aid convoys in Gaza has risen sharply in recent weeks.

“Operations have faced unprecedented levels of insecurity and a very high risk of looting, with partners reporting that most looting incidents are conducted by desperate civilians,” according to OCHA.

Nahed Shehaibar, head of the Private Transport Association in Gaza, said on Saturday that transport of aid had been suspended “for the third consecutive day due to repeated attacks on trucks, including gunfire that has damaged and put several trucks out of service.”

Last week the association reported that one driver was killed and another injured while trying to deliver aid, but Shehaibar said on Sunday that 11 trucks of commercial goods had reached merchants in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza successfully.

On Sunday, GHF said it operated three distribution sites – two in southern Gaza and one in central Gaza – to hand out more than 17,000 boxes of food. In addition, GHF said in its daily update that it gave more than 10,000 meals to community leaders north of Rafah in what the organization called a pilot test of “direct-to-community distribution.”

But many people who went to the Netzarim site in central Gaza left empty-handed.

Nader Musleh, who had walked from Al-Mawasi several kilometers away, agreed.

“Some people took five or 10 boxes, and there’s no organization at all,” he said.

Mohammad Abu Akouz was one of several civilians who alleged that some people were injured after coming under Israeli tank fire as they made their way to the site.

GHF said it had been unable to open its sites on Saturday, accusing Hamas of making threats against its operations, including against drivers and Palestinian workers. It said the threats had made it impossible to proceed without putting innocent lives at risk.

The drivers had been scheduled to move 180 employees to the three distribution sites, he added.

GHF said on Friday that it had distributed more than 140,000 boxes of food, with each box intended to feed a family for half a week. The boxes contain pasta, lentils and cooking oil, among other products. GHF says its goal is to distribute boxes containing enough food for 4.5 million meals each day.

After last week’s shootings, GHF appealed to people not to arrive at distribution points “before the official opening time or gather near the gates ahead of schedule. This is for your safety and the safety of others.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Saturday in a post on X that gathering outside distribution centers outside of announced hours was “strictly prohibited,” and warned that the areas around the aid hubs were closed military zones between 6 p.m. (11 a.m. ET) and 6 a.m. (11 p.m. ET).

The UN says that the use of the Israeli and American-backed GHF has militarized aid distribution and is inadequate for the huge task of feeding families in Gaza. GHF has no presence in northern Gaza.

In its latest assessment, OCHA said that 90 per cent of families in Gaza lack the cash needed to buy what little food remains available in markets. “Meat, dairy, vegetables and fruit are nearly absent from people’s diets,” it said.

Half of the community kitchens in Gaza have been forced to stop cooking due to lack of supplies or displacement orders, according to OCHA.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – the main agency for supplying aid in Gaza – said Saturday that a nutrition study had found that the percentage of children under 5 suffering from acute malnutrition had risen from 4.7% in the first half of May to 5.8% in the second half of the month.

UNRWA said the number of children forced to fend for themselves had pushed an increasing number into “dangerous survival strategies. Children are reported working on the streets, participating in looting or gathering within large crowds in search of food supplies at insecure distribution points.”

It’s not just food that is running chronically short.

He added that “a large number of the wounded cannot be treated due to the lack of blood supplies and medical equipment,” and medical staff faced difficult choices about which patients to save.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Sunday that Al-Shifa Hospital and the Baptist Ahli Hospital, both in northern Gaza, were at risk of shutting down service within 24 hours. It said that would mean the collapse of what remains of the healthcare system in Gaza City.

In the south, the Health Ministry said the Nasser Medical Complex was operating on a limited fuel supply that will last no more than two days.

Acclaimed Ukrainian opera singer Vladislav Horay has been killed while on a volunteer mission to the Sumy region, where a frontline battle for territory continues.

Horay was a soloist with the Odesa National Opera, which said in a statement that he was a “world-class tenor” and “Honored Artist of Ukraine,” whose voice was known around the globe.

“Tragic news has shaken the entire artistic community of Ukraine,” the opera house said in a post on Facebook on Sunday. “(Horay) was not only a talented performer — he was an example of strength, dignity, and kindness in life.”

The post did not say how Horay died.

According to a June 5 post on Horay’s Facebook, he was raising money for a Ukrainian naval unit.

Horay joined the Odesa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet in 1993 and performed in the USA, Britain, Canada and many other countries, according to its website. He also toured Britain and performed at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

His last performance was just a day before he died, according to the Odesa opera house, which uploaded a video of Horay singing the Neapolitan song “O Sole Mio.”

“Today, we share this video with you. It is not just a performance. It is farewell. It is the last concert. It is the last gift from a singer who lived for the stage and left a piece of his soul there.”

The northeast Sumy region where the Opera house said Horay was killed, has been a fierce battleground in the Russia-Ukraine war. The Opera said he was there on a volunteer mission, but did not elaborate.

Russian forces have in recent weeks made incremental progress advancing towards the capital of the region, also called Sumy.

While capturing the region’s capital is likely beyond what Moscow is setting out to do, the move underlines the pressure Kyiv is under, from the northern border to the Black Sea.

Colombian senator Miguel Uribe, in the running to join next year’s presidential race, has been shot at an event in Bogota, according to national police.

The mayor of Bogota, Carlos Galán, said Uribe was receiving emergency care after being attacked in the Fontibon district on Saturday and that the “entire hospital network” of the Colombian capital was on alert in case he needed to be transferred.

The mayor added that the suspected attacker had been arrested.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro expressed his solidarity with the senator’s family in a tweet on X, saying, “I don’t know how to ease your pain. It is the pain of a mother lost, and of a wounded homeland.”

Colombia’s government has issued a statement condemning the attack on Uribe.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Ukraine sent dozens of its own citizens to Russia last month, releasing them from prisons in an attempt to secure the release of dozens of Ukrainian civilians held illegally in Russian jails – a move described by human rights activists as desperate and worrying.

According to the Ukrainian government, 70 Ukrainian civilians convicted of collaborating with Russia were released as part of the 1,000 for 1,000 prisoner exchange between Kyiv and Moscow last month.

Ukraine said all of them went into exile voluntarily, as part of a government scheme that gives anyone convicted of collaborating with Russia the option of being sent there.

But human rights groups and international lawyers say the scheme is problematic, contradicts previous statements made by the Ukrainian government, and could potentially put more people at risk of being snatched by the Russians.

“I completely understand the sentiment, we all want the people (who are detained in Russia) to be released as quickly as possible and Russia has no will to do that… but the solution that is offered is definitely not the right one,” said Onysiia Syniuk, a legal analyst at Zmina, a Ukrainian human rights group.

The program, called “I want to go to my own,” was launched last year by Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the Ministry of Defense, the Security Service and the parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights.

A government website outlining the program includes photos and personal information of some of the 300 Ukrainian people that the government says have signed up to the program.

The profiles of 31 of them are stamped with a picture of a suitcase and the words “HAS LEFT,” with a note saying he or she “left for Russia while at the same time real Ukrainians returned home.”

Bargaining chips

According to Kyiv, at least 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are known to be detained in Russia, although the real number is likely to be much higher. Some 37,000 Ukrainians, including civilians, children and members of the military, are officially recognized as missing.

Many have been detained in occupied territories, detained for months or even years without any charges or trial, and deported to Russia. They include activists, journalists, priests, politicians and community leaders as well as people who appear to have been snatched by Russian troops at random at checkpoints and other places in occupied Ukraine.

The detention of civilians by an occupying power is illegal under international laws of conflict, except for in a few narrowly defined situations and with strict time limits.

Because of that, there is no established legal framework for the treatment and exchange of civilian detainees in the same way there is for prisoners of war.

Russia has, in some cases, claimed that the Ukrainian civilians it is holding are prisoners of war and should be recognized as such by Ukraine. Kyiv has been reluctant to do so because it could put civilians living in occupied areas of Ukraine at risk of being arbitrarily detained by Russia as it seeks to grow its pool for future exchanges.

Kyiv has rallied its allies to increase pressure on Russia over the issue and tried to get Moscow to agree to release the detained civilians through third countries, similar to the way some Ukrainian children have been returned with the help of Qatar, South Africa and the Vatican.

Several international organizations, including the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), have also repeatedly called on Moscow to unconditionally release its civilian detainees.

Russia has ignored the pleas.

The “I want to go to my own” program is an attempt by Kyiv to get some of the detained civilians back without having to recognize them as prisoners of war.

But human rights groups are urging the Ukrainian government to continue to press for unconditional release of civilians. “Under international humanitarian law, it is not possible to talk about exchanging civilians. All civilians unlawfully detained must be released unconditionally,” said Yulia Gorbunova, a senior researcher on Ukraine at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Announcing the 1,000 for 1,000 exchange, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted as much.

“I would like to thank our law enforcement officers today for adding Russian saboteurs and collaborators to the exchange fund,” the president said, while also thanking Ukrainian soldiers for capturing Russian troops on the front lines.

‘Political prisoners’

But it seems that the scheme did not yield the results Kyiv was hoping for.

The headquarters said the returnees included a group of at least 60 Ukrainian civilians who were convicted of criminal offenses unrelated to the war.

After completing their sentences, Russian authorities were supposed to deport these prisoners from the occupied territories back to Ukraine. Instead, it kept them, unlawfully, in detention centers normally used for illegal immigrants and only released them as part of the 1,000 for 1,000 prisoner swap.

The RussianHuman Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova described the convicted Ukrainian collaborators sent to Russia as “political prisoners,” but did not give any more details on who they were or what would happen to them next.

The “I want to go to my own” website gives details of some those sent to Russia in the prisoner exchange, including the offenses they were convicted of. Many were serving years-long sentences for collaboration with Moscow. Some were convicted of supporting the invasion or sharing information with Russian troops. Most received sentences of between five and eight years in prison.

But human rights lawyers say the Ukrainian collaboration law under which these people were sentenced is itself problematic.

HRW has previously issued an extensive report criticizing the anti-collaboration law, calling it flawed.

Gorbunova said the group analyzed close to 2,000 verdicts and that while there were genuine collaborators among them, a lot of them were “people who, under international humanitarian law, should not have been prosecuted.”

She said these included cases where there’s been “little or no harm done” and or where there was no intent to harm national security. Some of the cases involve people who had been working in public service in areas that were then occupied and who had simply continued doing their jobs.

“Helping people on the streets, people who are sick or have disabilities, distributing humanitarian aid. Teachers, firefighters, municipal workers who collect trash, that type of thing – they could be convicted of working for the occupation as collaborators,” she said.

“That is not to say that there are no actual collaborators who commit crimes against national security…who should be punished, (but) this legislation is so vague that essentially a very wide range of activities of people living and working under occupation could qualify as collaboration, which is troubling and problematic,” she said.

While the initiative’s website includes what it says are handwritten notes from each of the convicted collaborators indicating their wish to leave for Russia, human rights organizations say the way in which they have been disowned by their country is ethically dubious.