White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday that humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip had increased significantly over the past few days, but added that the United States needed to see the aid continue.

“There’s been a huge increase in aid over the past few days,” Kirby told MSNBC. “It’s important, but it has to continue.”

Kirby added that some 100 trucks had entered the enclave in the past 24 hours alone, bringing the total number of trucks carrying aid since the conflict began to 2,000.

A bakery in Gaza City has opened for business for the first time in six months with aid from the World Food Program, which is delivering much-needed food parcels and wheat flour to parts of the enclave, where U.N.-backed reports warn of impending famine.

Holding a bag of freshly baked bread in his hand, Gaza resident Abdelrahman al-Jadba said he was relieved to be able to feed his children and described how he was The children were forced to eat bread made of flour and sand.

Earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden threatened to use U.S. support for Israel’s war against Hamas to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as Israel to take concrete steps to protect aid workers and civilians there.

In a separate interview with CNBC, Kirby echoed Biden’s stance, saying: “If we don’t see significant change over time, our policy on Gaza will change.”

The move was prompted by an Israeli attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers.

Aid agencies complain that Israel has not ensured adequate food, medicine and other needed humanitarian supplies in the devastated Palestinian enclave, where civilians face famine and widespread disease and nearly all are homeless.

ground attack

The Israeli military has expressed determination to free the remaining hostages held by Hamas, the U.S.-designated terror group, and said it may send troops to Rafah, the far-southern city where most of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have taken refuge.

Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said of the approximately 130 people, including 34 people presumed dead, “Hamas is still holding our hostages in Gaza.” Israel said that since October 7 These remain in the hands of Palestinian militants since the Japanese attack, which killed 10 people. According to Israeli figures, there are 1,170 people, mostly civilians.

“We still have hostages in Rafah and we will do everything we can to bring them home,” a military spokesman said in a briefing.

The Israeli army said it was calling in “two reserve brigades for operational activities” about a week after withdrawing most of its ground troops from Gaza.

The Hamas government media office said Israeli aircraft and tanks launched “dozens” of attacks overnight in central Gaza, causing many casualties.

Witnesses told AFP there were attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp, while more clashes broke out in other parts of central and northern Gaza.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 33,000 people, mostly women and children, in the past six months, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The death toll in Gaza stood at at least 68 in the past 24 hours, a foreign ministry statement said, adding that 76,465 people had been injured in Gaza since the war began.

Information for this report was provided in part by The Associated Press, AFP and Reuters.