POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI)—The City of Pocatello invites community members to an upcoming open house to learn more about the North Portneuf Crossing Project, a major infrastructure effort aimed at improving safety, mobility, and connectivity in the area.

Significant improvements are planned for the intersection of North Kraft Road and North Main Extension, including the installation of a traffic signal, extension of Foothill Boulevard, and numerous enhancements for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit users.

Project highlights include:

Traffic signal installation at North Kraft Road and North Main Extension

Extension of Foothill Boulevard to Kraft Road and cul-de-sac at the end of Gathe Drive

Bicycle and pedestrian improvements

A paved trail on the north side of the Portneuf River with a pedestrian bridge over Pocatello Creek

A new Pocatello Regional Transit bus stop

Stormwater system upgrades

New medians, sidewalks, and crosswalks

Planning for a paved trail at the Pacific Steel & Recycling trailhead

The City of Pocatello was awarded a competitive $7,750,000 U.S. Department of Transportation grant to support these major safety and infrastructure improvements. The open house is part of phase I of the project which will complete environmental work and preliminary design plans. Community input gathered during this phase will help shape the final plans before the project moves into the design-build stage.

Open House information:

Date : June 10, 2025

: June 10, 2025 Time : 4:00 – 6:00 PM

: 4:00 – 6:00 PM Location: Water Department Main Office, 1889 N. Arthur Ave, Pocatello, ID 83204

Residents are encouraged to attend, ask questions, and provide feedback on the project. For more information, visit: north-portneuf-crossing-pocatello.hub.arcgis.com/.

The WFP said that 77 trucks carrying aid, mostly flour, were stopped by hungry people who took the food before the vehicles were able to reach their destination.

A nearly three-month Israeli blockade on Gaza has pushed the population to the brink of famine.

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While the pressure slightly eased in recent days as Israel allowed some aid to enter, organisations said there still is not nearly enough food getting in.

Hamas on Friday said it was reviewing a US proposal for a temporary ceasefire. President Donald Trump said that negotiators were nearing a deal.

A Palestinian girl waits to collect (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)

A ceasefire would pause the fighting for 60 days, release some of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and much-needed food aid and other assistance, according to Hamas and Egyptian officials.

The WFP said the fear of starvation in Gaza is high despite the food aid that is entering now.

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“We need to flood communities with food for the next few days to calm anxieties and rebuild the trust with communities that more food is coming,” said agency said in a statement.

A witness in the southern city of Khan Younis told The Associated Press that the UN convoy was stopped at a makeshift roadblock and unloaded by thousands of desperate civilians.

Most people carried bags of flour on their backs or heads. He said at one point a forklift was used to offload pallets from the stranded trucks.

The United Nations said earlier this month that Israeli authorities have forced them to use unsecured routes within areas controlled by the Israeli military in the eastern areas of Rafah and Khan Younis, where armed gangs are active.

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An internal document shared with aid groups about security incidents, seen by the AP, said there were four incidents of facilities being looted in three days at the end of May, not including the convoy on Saturday.

The UN said it been unable to get enough aid in because of fighting.

Meanwhile, Israel is continuing its military campaign across Gaza.

Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli air strike (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)

The Gaza Health Ministry said that at least 60 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours.

It said three people were hit by Israeli gunfire early on Saturday morning in the southern city of Rafah. Three other people were killed – parents and a child – when their car was struck in Gaza City.

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The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 2023, killing around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 250 hostages.

Of those taken captive, 58 remain in Gaza but Israel believes 35 are dead and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there are “doubts” about the fate of several others.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 54,000 Gaza residents, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

CNN

By Jeremy Diamond, CNN

Tel Aviv, Israel (CNN) — Israel has agreed to allow some food into Gaza before a newly-approved mechanism for aid deliveries is up and running later this month, the head of the newly established Gaza Humanitarian Foundation told CNN.

Jake Wood, the foundation’s executive director, said he did not yet know when or how many aid trucks Israel would allow into Gaza, but he called conditions there “clearly urgent” and said he expects “positive updates on that in the coming days.”

The Israeli government, which has blocked aid to Gaza for nearly 11 weeks, has not responded to multiple requests for comment about the matter.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will run a new, tightly controlled mechanism for Gaza aid deliveries that has been approved by Israel and the United States, which both countries say is designed to prevent Hamas from stealing aid.

The United Nations’ major aid organizations say, however, that there is no evidence of any significant diversion of aid in Gaza and are refusing to participate in the new aid mechanism, warning it risks displacing Palestinians and increasing the dangers they face.

The UN’s aid chief, Tom Fletcher, said Friday that time should not be wasted on an alternative Gaza aid plan, writing on X: “To those proposing an alternative modality for aid distribution, let’s not waste time: We already have a plan.”

In his first interview since launching the foundation, Wood addressed criticisms by the UN and other aid groups and urged them to reconsider.

“This plan is not perfect, but this plan will be feeding people by the end of the month, in a scenario where no one has allowed aid in over the course of the last 10 weeks,” Wood said.

“Ultimately, the community is going to face a choice. This is going to be the mechanism by which aid can be distributed in Gaza. Are you willing to participate? The answer is going to be, you know, pretty critical to whether or not this ramps up to sufficiently feed 2.2 million people in a very desperate situation.”

Without the support of the major UN agencies, Wood said it is “hard to say” whether his foundation will be able to distribute enough aid to feed Gaza’s population of 2.1 million. He said the foundation currently plans to provide 300 million meals in its first 90 days, which he acknowledged is “not sufficient.”

Wood said he believes much of the humanitarian community’s opposition to the new mechanism is based on misinformation, including what he says are false claims about the Israeli military providing direct security for aid distribution sites and biometric data being shared with the Israeli government.

“I cannot blame the humanitarian community for crying foul amid that misinformation. I would not have participated in a plan that did those same things. However, that is not the plan,” Wood said.

He added that he “unequivocally … will not be a part of anything that forcibly dislocates or displaces the Palestinian population.”

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will initially launch four distribution sites: three in southern Gaza and one in central Gaza, Wood said – even though much of the strip’s population is in the central and northern areas.

The UN has previously warned that focusing on these locations could be seen as encouraging Israel’s publicly stated goal of forcing “the entire Gazan population” out of northern Gaza, as Defense Minister Israel Katz put it earlier this month.

According to Wood, Israel has also agreed to allow the foundation to establish two sites in northern Gaza, which he believes can be operational within the first 30 days of the foundation’s operations.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is only expected to be able to feed about 60% of Gaza’s population in its first weeks. Wood said it is not clear how long it will take to be able to cover the needs of the entire population.

Pressed on Israel’s claims that Hamas is stealing humanitarian aid – which Hamas and aid organizations deny – Wood said “it doesn’t really matter.”

“Israel controls access to Gaza, and if, if it is their belief that there is a large percentage of aid that is being interdicted by Hamas and other non-state actors … then we have no choice but to create a mechanism which operates in that construct and in that framing,” Wood said.

“I think, as with most situations, there’s three sides to every story. There’s one side, there’s the other side, and then there’s the truth somewhere in between. I’m not here to render judgment on either of those. I’m here to solve a problem and feed people.”

The foundation’s operations will be secured by a private American security contractor, UG Solutions, which also manned a vehicle checkpoint in Gaza during the ceasefire earlier this year.

Wood, a US Marine Corps veteran, said the contractors will be responsible for guarding aid trucks from the Gaza border to the distribution sites and will not be involved in distributing the aid to civilians.

Wood said they would be operating “under strict rules of engagement,” which he declined to share for operational security, but said they would abide by international laws and norms.

The-CNN-Wire

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GENEVA/CAIRO, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Nearly 100 trucks carrying food for Palestinians were violently looted on Nov. 16 after entering Gaza in one of the worst aid losses during 13 months of war in the enclave, where hunger is deepening, two U.N. agencies told Reuters on Monday.

The convoy transporting food provided by U.N. agencies UNRWA and the World Food Programme was instructed by Israel to depart at short notice via an unfamiliar route from Kerem Shalom border crossing, said Louise Wateridge, UNRWA Senior Emergency Officer.

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Ninety-eight of the 109 trucks in the convoy were raided and some of the transporters were injured during the incident, she said, without detailing who carried out the ambush.

“This … highlights the severity of access challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza,” she told Reuters.

“⁠The urgency of the crisis cannot be overstated; without immediate intervention, severe food shortages are set to worsen, further endangering the lives of over two million people who depend on humanitarian aid to survive.”

The Hamas TV channel Al-Aqsa quoted Hamas interior ministry sources in Gaza as saying that over 20 gang members involved in looting aid trucks were killed during an operation carried out by Hamas security forces in coordination with tribal committees.

It said anyone caught aiding such looting would be treated with “an iron fist”.

A WFP spokesperson confirmed the looting and said that many routes in Gaza were currently impassable due to security issues.

An Israeli official said Israel had been working to address the humanitarian situation since the start of its war against Hamas, adding that the main problem with aid deliveries was U.N. distribution challenges.

A U.N. aid official said on Friday that access for aid to Gaza had reached a low point , with deliveries to parts of the Israeli-besieged north of the enclave all but impossible. Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza was triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel.

Reporting by Emma Farge and Nidal Al Mughrabi; Additional reporting by Emily Rose; Editing by Friederike Heine, Ros Russell and Mark Heinrich

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab

A convoy of 109 trucks was violently looted on Saturday after entering Gaza, resulting in the loss of 98 trucks, an official from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has said.

The looting is one of the worst such incidents in the more than 13-month-old Israeli assault on the besieged and bombarded enclave, Louise Wateridge, senior emergency officer for UNRWA, said on Monday.

The convoy carrying food provided by UN agencies UNRWA and the World Food Programme was instructed by Israel to depart at short notice via an unfamiliar route from the Karem Abu Salem [Kerem Shalom] crossing with Gaza.

“This incident highlights the severity of access challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza,” Wateridge said, adding that injuries occurred in the incident.

“⁠The urgency of the crisis cannot be overstated; without immediate intervention, severe food shortages are set to worsen, further endangering the lives of over two million people who depend on humanitarian aid to survive,” she said.

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UNRWA did not specify who carried out the looting.

In a statement, Hamas decried the incident and said anyone caught aiding such looting would be treated with “an iron fist”.

Israel claims it does all it can to ensure that enough aid enters the coastal enclave, and that it does not prevent the entry of humanitarian aid.

However, a UN aid official said on Friday that Gaza aid access had reached a low point, with deliveries to parts of the besieged north of the enclave all but impossible.

In the north – namely in Jabalia, Beit Hanoon, and Beit Lahia – virtually no food has been allowed to enter for more than a month, ever since Israeli forces renewed a ground assault in the area, which has been completely cut off from the rest of the Gaza Strip.

Looming famine

Earlier this month, experts from a panel that monitors food security said famine is imminent in the north or may already be happening.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that there are between 75,000 and 95,000 people still in northern Gaza.

The area is being pounded by Israeli forces. According to Palestinian health officials, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since the renewed offensive began last month.

Israel has killed at least 43,922 Palestinians since it launched its devastating assault on Gaza on October 7, 2023. That followed a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, in which 1,139 people were killed.

Along with stepping up the bombardment, the Israeli army has issued new waves of forced displacement orders for residents of northern Gaza.

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But many Palestinians have refused to leave despite the catastrophic humanitarian conditions and the near-daily shelling. Some fear that if they leave northern Gaza, they risk being attacked by Israeli soldiers and snipers.

Health officials say the siege has crippled the healthcare system in northern Gaza and is also blocking medical teams from reaching bombarded sites.

Israel has banned UNRWA from operating in the country and has cut ties with it, claiming the organisation has ties to Hamas, which UNRWA denies. The agency cautioned on Monday that a halt to its activities in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem would block it from coordinating massive aid efforts inside Gaza.

“There is no plan B,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday.

The only alternative to UNRWA’s work in Gaza is to allow Israel to run services there, Lazzarini said, repeating calls for countries to resist the Israeli ban on the organisation, which is set to come into effect in January.

Lazzarini is in Geneva for a strategy meeting with donors. The ban, he said, is one of the darkest moments in the agency’s history.

“I have drawn the attention of the member states that now the clock is ticking … We have to stop or prevent the implementation of this bill,” he told reporters.

The ordered suspension of the agency sparked global condemnation, including from key Israeli ally the United States.

UNRWA provides assistance to nearly six million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.