Days after an aid delivery in Gaza turned into a deadly disaster, Israel pressed ahead on Sunday with a new convoy headed to northern Gaza, a Palestinian businessman involved in the initiative said, as the United Nations warned that the deaths of children and infants will likely result in “rapid increase” if food and medical supplies are not delivered immediately.

Izzat Aqel, the businessman, said the renewed delivery of aid on Sunday came after only one of at least 16 trucks carrying supplies north had reached Gaza City a day earlier. The rest, he said, had been surrounded by desperate Gazans and emptied in the Nuseirat neighborhood of central Gaza.

COGAT, the Israeli agency responsible for coordinating aid deliveries to Gaza, said on Sunday on X that 277 trucks entered Gaza, which the agency said was the highest number of trucks entering the enclave in a single day since the start of the war. It was unclear how many of those trucks reached northern Gaza.

Delivering supplies to Gaza, especially in the north, has become increasingly urgent in recent days as the United Nations has warned that many Gazans are on the brink of famine.

Israeli officials have worked with several Gaza businessmen in recent days to organize private aid convoys. But a convoy that arrived in Gaza City before dawn on Thursday ended in destruction. More than a hundred Palestinians were killed after many thousands of people gathered around trucks loaded with food and supplies, Gaza health officials said.

Israeli and Palestinian officials and witnesses offered widely varying accounts of the chaos. Witnesses described extensive shootings by Israeli forces, and doctors at hospitals in Gaza said most of the casualties were the result of gunfire. The Israeli army said most of the victims were trampled in a crowd of people trying to seize the cargo, although Israeli officials acknowledged that troops had opened fire on members of the crowd who, the army said, “were acting in a manner had been approached that put them in danger’. .”

The agreement between Palestinian businessmen and the Israeli army to send convoys to Gaza came after the World Food Program and UNRWA said they were no longer able to deliver aid to the north, citing civilian efforts to rush aid trucks, Israeli restrictions on convoys and the poor condition of roads damaged during the war. The United States performed its first performance on Saturday airdrop of aidalthough U.S. officials have said such operations cannot move supplies on the same scale as the convoys.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, saying Hamas must agree to the six-week pause currently on the table and Israel must increase the flow of aid to the besieged enclave amid a “humanitarian crisis”. catastrophe.”

Ms. Harris’ comments, delivered in Selma, Ala., reinforced a recent effort by the Biden administration to reach an agreement and came a day before she met with a top Israeli official involved in war planning, raising tensions may increase after President Biden called Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas-led attack is ‘over the top’.

Ms. Harris’ comments were her strongest yet on the conflict in the Middle East, which Gaza health authorities say has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians and pushed the enclave to the brink of famine.

“People in Gaza are starving,” Ms. Harris said. “The conditions are inhumane. And our common humanity compels us to action.”

She added: “Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire,” a sentence that drew loud applause.

Gaza’s health ministry said Sunday that 15 children at the Kamal Adwan hospital in the north have died in recent days from what it described as malnutrition and dehydration. The ministry did not provide further details on the deaths, but said the hospital had run out of oxygen and fuel to power its generators and was barely functioning, with very limited supplies. It added in a statement that the lives of six other children in intensive care were at risk due to malnutrition and dehydration.

Adele Khodr, UNICEF director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement on Sunday that one in six children under the age of two in Gaza is acutely malnourished.

“These tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable and completely preventable,” she said of the deaths reported in Kamal Adwan.

The United Nations and aid agencies say a ceasefire is necessary to reach Gazans isolated by more than four months of fighting.

Talks about a pause in fighting continued in Cairo on Sunday, but a breakthrough did not appear imminent. Hamas sent representatives, but no Israeli officials were present.

Israel decided not to send a delegation to Cairo after Qatar’s prime minister told the head of Israel’s Mossad on Sunday morning that Hamas had rejected an Israeli request to provide a list of the hostages seized during the October 7 invasion and were still alive. an Israeli official familiar with the talks and not authorized to speak publicly on the subject.

Another factor in Israel’s decision was that Hamas refused to agree to the hostage-for-Palestinian prisoner exchange conditions set by the United States. presented in Paris about ten days agosaid two Israeli officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The US plan called for Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 40 hostages, with different numbers of prisoners traded for different categories of hostages, according to two officials with knowledge of the negotiations.

Basem Naim, a Hamas official, declined to comment on claims about the group’s denials.

The United States has pushed for a ceasefire ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that starts in about a week, but progress in talks has been slow.

In a measure of the desperation in Gaza, Palestinians continued to gather this weekend at the same spot on the coast where Thursday’s deadly incident unfolded, hoping for more aid to arrive.

“Even after the massacre, people still go to Al-Rashid Street every day and will continue to do so until they secure some help,” said Ghada Ikrayyem, 23, a resident of North Gaza. “We expected people to be scared after what happened on Thursday, but we were surprised to see even more people going there.”

Ms Ikrayyem’s brother Muhammed, 30, who is deaf and mute, slept on the beach for three days waiting for emergency vehicles to arrive, she said. After dodging the bullets on Thursday, he managed to get home with a 25 kilogram bag of flour, which was now being rationed and mixed with animal feed to make it last as long as possible by fifty members of his family who had found shelter together to go.

“He came home terrified, he saw dead bodies everywhere,” Ms. Ikrayyem said in a telephone interview on Sunday. Despite narrowly avoiding death on Thursday, Muhammed has returned to the same spot every day since, hoping to get another bag of flour, she added.

The threat of famine comes as fighting continues in Gaza, especially in the south.

An Israeli attack on Saturday outside a hospital in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, killed at least 11 people and injured dozens of other displaced Palestinians, including children, who were sheltering in nearby tents, the Health Ministry said of Gaza.

At least two health workers, including a paramedic, were among those killed after the strike at the gate of the Emirates maternity hospital, the Health Ministry said.

Photos taken by news agencies showed colleagues of the paramedic, identified by the Health Ministry as Abdul Fattah Abu Marai, taking his body to the nearby Kuwaiti hospital, as well as injured children lying on stretchers as other children watched and cried .

The Israeli military said later Saturday that it had carried out a “precision strike” on “Islamic Jihad terrorists” near the hospital, with the help of Israel’s Internal Security Service. The army declined to comment on reports that children had been injured in the attack.

More than 21 weeks after fighting began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, which Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people, the consequences of the war continue to ripple through the region.

On Saturday, a British cargo ship, the Rubymar, sank in the Red Sea about two weeks after it was damaged in a missile attack by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, which says it is attacking ships in an effort to pressure Israel. to end the military siege of Gaza.

The US Army Central Command confirmed the sinking of the Rubymar rack on social media. It said the ship sank early Saturday with a cargo of 21,000 tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer that now “poses an environmental risk in the Red Sea.”

Erica L. Greencontributed reporting from Selma, Ala., andAnushka Patil also contributed.

Since 2020, Democratic strategists and activists have been fixated on how to increase their gains in Georgia, once a Republican stronghold and now a veritable battleground.

But some of the state’s most prominent grassroots organizers — those responsible for President Biden’s 2020 victory and that of two Democratic U.S. senators in 2021 — are increasingly concerned that efforts and attention are waning four years later .

The national money that once flowed freely from Democratic groups to help win crucial Senate races in Georgia is slow to come. Leading organizers say, just over a month after the expected start of their initiatives to mobilize voters for the presidential elections, they are facing a deep sense of apathy among key constituencies that will require even more resources.

And small but potentially crucial shifts in strategy — cost-conscious measures such as delaying large-scale voter engagement programs until later in the cycle or relying more on volunteers than paid candidates — have stoked fears among some organizers about their ability to repeat their successes. More than that, it has led them to wonder how seriously Democratic donors and party leaders will take the state in 2024, even as Biden’s campaign indicated that a repeat victory in Georgia is part of his strategy.

“What we’re hearing is it’s not about the first level,” said Cliff Albright, co-founder and executive director of the Black Voters Matter Fund, which has been one of the leading organizations on the ground in Georgia since 2020. “So that’s a bit disappointing, but we don’t know exactly what that means yet. But some early indications are that it will not be prioritized.”

Unlike 2020 or 2022, Georgia will not see a major statewide race in 2024, increasing the urgency for progressives to build both a robust digital operation and organizing on the ground.

Interviews with more than a dozen Georgia-based organizers and political strategists, as well as a review of financial disclosure forms for the state’s most committed grassroots organizing groups, revealed smaller fundraising totals and slower spending in 2023 — a slowdown that’s not unusual for a year without a major election, but it has highlighted concerns about the resources needed for the presidential race in the state.

“It’s no secret across the ecosystem that fundraising has been a challenge in 2023 through 2024,” said Jonae Wartel, a Democratic political strategist who helped run Raphael Warnock’s 2020 U.S. Senate campaign. “I don’t think the resources are where they need to be right now, but I really think it’s about engaging and engaging the donor community to really invest early.”

A number of organizers in Georgia have met with national donors in recent months. At a meeting of liberal donors and national organizing groups in Washington last week, Georgia organizers were among those assured that their work would continue to be funded, although some left the impression that the campaigns in other states undermined Georgia’s interest in the eyes of some could overshadow. followers.

Mr. Albright, who attended the meeting in Washington, said donors and party leaders had considered heavier investments in swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. North Carolina, a southern state that faces a highly competitive gubernatorial race in 2024, is also likely to receive more attention.

Similar concern is growing among donors who were early to the Georgia cause in 2020 and who are increasingly irritated by the slow trickle of money flowing into the state.

“For some inexplicable reason, a lot of people are leaving Georgia out of the top states to focus on next year,” said Steve Phillips, an early supporter of Stacey Abrams and a progressive Democratic donor from San Francisco. Mr. Phillips said he had “heard from top donors and several billionaire advisers” that “they have a top tier of five states and Georgia is not in that.”

Mr. Phillips also blamed some Democratic leaders. “If donors don’t hear from top campaigners that we can and must win Georgia,” he said, “then donors won’t be excited about it.”

Leading organizers in Georgia argue that more money and manpower will flow into the state as the general election approaches, and they expect a more visible Donald J. Trump, should he earn the Republican nomination, will push progressive donors and reluctant voters off the sidelines motivate. . But the current slowdown, combined with declining support for Biden among young and Black voters, shows the challenge Democrats will face.

And while grassroots groups plan to launch their organizing initiatives for the presidential election in January, it is expected to take a few months before Mr. Biden’s campaign is expected to set up its own organizing infrastructure there. Georgia’s presidential primaries are on March 12.

In some ways, the groups are operating in a similar environment to the early days of the 2020 election. Megadonors didn’t pay much attention to Georgia until a few months before November, when polls showed the Democrats’ strength.

The groups quickly grew in size and scope after Democrats won two Senate runoff elections in 2021 — developments that gave the once-fledgling organizations lasting power and proved that there had long been belief among veteran state organizers that the South could play a role before the elections. party through good investments.

“Building a winning movement requires year-round support and investment,” said Craig Walters, organizing director of Fair Fight Action, in a statement. “And the time for that investment is now.”

This month’s elections in Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Mississippi offered a first look at next year’s political landscape. Issues like abortion access and the erosion of democratic norms have galvanized Democratic voters, but enthusiasm for Biden’s reelection is at record lows among key parts of the base.

A New York Times/Siena College poll released this month showed black voters moving noticeably toward Trump. Pessimism was also pronounced among young voters, who said in interviews they had been rejected by both parties.

According to the groups, this only underlines the importance of their work.

“As we think about investing in this election, think about these organizations that support and talk to voters all year round,” said Hillary Holley, executive director of Care in Action, an organization that supports domestic workers. “Because at the end of the day, we will be one of the best messengers, because we have the most trust with these voters who are not considering voting for Trump, but are more considering delaying it.”

Some groups also face internal challenges. The New Georgia Project recently completed an internal investigation into its finances following claims that the organization mishandled funds it raised in 2020 and 2021. first reported by Politico.

Kendra Davenport Cotton, the CEO of the New Georgia Project, said the internal review “revealed the misstep” and left her organization “on sound financial footing.” She added that she had set a fundraising goal of about $18 million for 2024 – close to what the group raised in 2020.

In an email to supporters on Wednesday previewing the 2024 organizing campaign, the New Georgia Project framed its plans as a solution to what it called Mr. Biden’s campaign’s “messaging problem.”

Black voters, Ms. Davenport Cotton said in an interview, “don’t hear enough about what he did for them, which our research shows is how they understand their political power and feel motivated to get out again.”

Many voters, she said, feel compelled to blame the White House for issues for which state or local leaders are responsible. Her group and others like it plan to highlight the difference.

“It is incumbent on groups like us to be very intentional in those messages,” she said.