For the first time since the port of Ashdod in southern Israel was opened for aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, relief supplies for the coastal area have been handled via the port, Israel's army said on Wednesday.
Eight lorries carrying flour were checked there and then taken to the Gaza Strip, it said.
However, the World Food Programme (WFP) trucks had entered the coastal area via the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the south - not via Erez in the north of the Gaza Strip, which Israel also recently announced would be opened and which is much closer to Ashdod.
Kerem Shalom has long been used for aid deliveries.
In view of the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, the United States recently called on its ally Israel to rapidly expand humanitarian aid for the civilian population.
In response, the Israeli war Cabinet decided at the beginning of April to open the Erez border crossing and, temporarily, the port of Ashdod for aid deliveries.
The Erez border crossing would make it easier to supply the civilian population in the north, where experts have been warning that there is a threat of famine there.
According to Israeli sources, this new access is intended to reduce the pressure on the existing Kerem Shalom crossing. There was no indication on Wednesday as to when Erez could be opened for aid deliveries.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said it needs billions of dollars this year to help the suffering population in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Donor countries are being asked to provide an additional $2.8 billion for 3.3 million people by the end of the year, OCHA said on Wednesday.
Most of the money, around $2.5 billion, is earmarked for the Palestinians in the sealed-off Gaza Strip.
During her seventh visit to Israel, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has once again called for an expansion of aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip.
"This is costing lives," she said on Wednesday at Tel Aviv airport.
The distribution of relief supplies has repeatedly led to chaotic scenes, and several people have already lost their lives.
At the beginning of April, several volunteers were also killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre of more than 1,200 people killed by militants from the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement and other groups in Israel on October 7.
Israel responded with massive airstrikes and a ground offensive. The high number of civilian casualties and the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip have led to Israel coming under heavy international criticism.
According to the Hamas-run health authority, more than 33,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the war.
Around 250 people were abducted to the coastal area during the Hamas massacre. Some of them were released after negotiations. Israel had previously assumed that just under 100 of the 130 remaining hostages were still alive. However, it is now feared that many more may be dead.
Negotiations on a new ceasefire in Gaza and the release of further hostages are in "crisis," a senior Hamas member told the news channel Al Jazeera on Wednesday. He accused the United States, which is mediating between Israel and Hamas together with Qatar and Egypt, of "taking sides with Israel."
Qatar is re-evaluating its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman told a press briefing in Doha on Wednesday.
Qatar's role has been abused by some people for the sake of limited political gains, he said. However, he did not name anyone in particular.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Qatar, the state news agency Anadolu reported on Wednesday, citing diplomatic sources.
The issues they discussed included a ceasefire in the Gaza war and the release of hostages, Anadolu reported.
According to media reports, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also wants to meet Haniyeh in Turkey at the weekend.
Erdoğan attacked the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again on Wednesday. He said Netanyahu was responsible for the deaths of thousands of children and had "long since surpassed Hitler."
Erdoğan has already repeatedly compared Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the past and accused the Israeli head of government of committing a "massacre" in the Gaza Strip. Israel has repeatedly and firmly rejected Erdoğan's statements.