Israel has said 93 UN aid trucks entered war-ravaged Gaza, a day after the UN announced it had been cleared to send supplies for the first time since Israel imposed a total blockade on 2 March.
COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said "93 UN trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including flour for bakeries, food for babies, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical drugs were transferred today via the Kerem Shalom crossing into the Gaza Strip".
Earlier, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said no humanitarian aid had been distributed yet in Gaza, despite the supplies being dropped off on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing.
"Today, one of our teams waited several hours for the Israeli green light to access the Kerem Shalom area and collect the nutrition supplies. Unfortunately, they were not able to to bring those supplies into our warehouse," Mr Dujarric said.
Israel allowed limited aid deliveries to Gaza to resume yesterday after its 11-week blockade on aid into the territory.
The UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in the next 48 hours if more aid does not reach them.
International humanitarian experts have warned of looming famine in the Palestinian territory of 2.3 million people.
After weeks of blockade, Israel cleared nine trucks of goods yesterday to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
However speaking earlier today, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), said just five of those had entered Gaza and were "under Israeli control" and subject to the last stage of checks.
"The next step is to collect them, and then they will be distributed through the existing system," said Mr Laerke, adding that those trucks contained baby food and nutritional products for children.
"We know for a fact that there are babies in urgent life-saving need of these supplements. And if they do not get those, they will be in mortal danger," he said in response to a question about whether babies' lives were at risk.
Malnutrition rates in the densely populated territory have risen during the Israeli blockade and could rise exponentially if food shortages continue, a health official at the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said at the same briefing.
"I have data until end of April and it shows malnutrition on the rise," said Akihiro Seita, UNRWA Director of Health.
"And then the worry is that if the current food shortage continues, it will exponentially increase, and then get beyond our control."
Watch: 'Not enough trucks crossing border,' says UNICEF spokesperson
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the temporary resumption of "basic" humanitarian aid yesterday, amid rising pressure from the US and European nations to end the blockade causing famine conditions in Gaza.
Defending the decision, which was opposed by several Israeli cabinet members, Israel's foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said Israel "must be sure that we are conducting this war in a way that can be supported by our friends".
Asked if such a minimal aid operation could be seen as UN participation in little more than a propaganda exercise for Israel, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary General said there was "physical and reputational risk" for the UN to be involved, but that it did not have "the luxury to say no".
"We will participate in aid that we're able to distribute under our own principles," spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said, adding "we have a responsibility to the people of Gaza".
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said it was unbelievable that only five trucks carrying aid were allowed to enter Gaza yesterday when 500 or more are needed.
"The bypassing of the United Nations is also reprehensible," Mr Martin added.
"The United Nations have agencies who understand the situation in great detail on the ground, who are in a position to get the aid there, quickly to people and to help people, and quickly to help the children and the UN agencies should have... control of the distribution of aid into Gaza," he said.
Israeli officials have long claimed that UN-distributed humanitarian aid was being diverted to Hamas militants in Gaza.
Last week, the United States confirmed plans to set up a new aid distribution system run by private companies and protected by Israeli military forces. The move was rejected by the UN.
Mr Fletcher called the plan "a fig leaf for further violence and displacement of Palestinians".
"It is a cynical sideshow, a deliberate distraction," he told a meeting of the UN Security Council last Tuesday.
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In his remarks, Mr Fletcher asked council members what they would tell future generations they did "to stop the 21st century atrocity to which we bear daily witness in Gaza".
He was the first UN official to use the term "genocide" in connection with the war in Gaza.
"Will you act - decisively - to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law? Or will you say instead: we did all we could?" he said.
The Israeli mission to the UN issued a furious response.
"You had the audacity in your capacity as a senior UN official to stand before the Security Council and invoke the charge of genocide without evidence, mandate or restraint," Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, wrote in a letter to Mr Fletcher's office.
Mr Danon also accused the UN aid chief of "abandoning the principles of neutrality".
US asking countries for 'voluntary' Palestinian relocation
The United States has reached out to countries about accepting "voluntary" relocations of Palestinians fleeing Israel's war in Gaza, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said.
Israel has again warned the population of Gaza to leave their homes ahead of a new invasion and attacks.
Responding to a question in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr Rubio claimed: "There's no deportation."
"What we have talked to some nations about is, if someone voluntarily and willingly says, I want to go somewhere else for some period of time because I'm sick, because my children need to go to school, or what have you, are there countries in the region willing to accept them for some period of time?" Mr Rubio said.
"Those will be voluntary decisions by individuals," he claimed.
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley replied, if "there is no clean water, there is no food, and bombing is all around you, is that really a voluntary decision?".
Mr Rubio did not say which countries had been approached but denied that Libya was among them.
NBC News, quoting anonymous sources, recently reported that Mr Trump's administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate up to one million Palestinians from Gaza to Libya.
