Devastation in Gaza as Israel wages war on Hamas

The UN Security Council has passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza after the US abstained from the vote. Follow for live updates.

A senior US defense official said Tuesday that there has been a “significant increase” in the amount of aid flowing into Gaza through various crossings, resulting in nearly 200 trucks coming in a day.  “[W]e are now seeing a rather significant increase in the flow of assistance through the many crossings that it does use — the Rafah crossing, the Kerem Shalom crossing, a new crossing 96 that Israel has opened,” the official said. While aid was coming in at roughly 100 trucks a day in February, “it’s on its way back up to an average of close to 200 a day,” the official added.  “There’s definitely still more to be done. We are contributing with airdrops, we are contributing with the maritime corridor we are addressing we are also — and the Secretary did today — urging continued maximum flow through the crossing, the land crossing points I mentioned, and others,” the official said. “And so we see results but we also see the need for significantly more results.” Hamas has called on Western countries to end airdrops of aid into Gaza, warning that the humanitarian delivery method is “offensive, wrong, inappropriate and useless.”  Earlier, CNN spoke to witnesses who said at least 12 people drowned off the northern coast of Gaza on Monday after swimming out to try to retrieve packages airdropped into the sea by an unknown country.