Israel challenges UN to deliver more food to Gaza
After two months of restricting UN aid convoys in favour of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the Israel Defence Forces said they were implementing new 'humanitarian pauses' in fighting to allow in more UN aid. They stopped daytime military operations in three locations: Gaza city, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi.
In addition they set up 'secure routes to enable the safe passage of UN and humanitarian aid organisation convoys delivering and distributing food and medicine to the population across the Gaza Strip'.
They also allowed three Jordanian and Emirati supply planes to drop aid supplies into the strip, though the quantity delivered, 25 tonnes, is a fraction of what the UN can deliver on the ground.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said that it distributed 4,200 tonnes last week, even before Israel eased restrictions. Israel also staged its own air drops.
Israeli ministers have alternated between denying the existence of famine conditions in Gaza, despite the mounting numbers of images of emaciated children, and blaming Hamas.
On Sunday Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, gave an ambiguous interpretation of whether the IDF's reversal amounted to a concession to international pressure, including from Britain and other western governments.
'Whichever path we choose, we will have to continue to allow the entry of minimal humanitarian supplies,' Netanyahu said.
Speaking from the Ramon air base in the Negev desert, he added: 'There are secured convoys. There have been all along, but today it is official. There will be no more excuses.'
In line with warnings from aid officials, the first convoys seen to enter Gaza under the new regimen, including from Egypt for the first time in months, were mobbed by desperate crowds.
Apart from the aid situation, the prospect of a ceasefire will be high on the agenda when President Trump meets Sir Keir Starmer on Monday, especially after the announcement by President Macron of France on Friday that he intended to recognise Palestinian statehood.
Starmer has so far resisted pressure to follow suit but ministers were keen to show they were paying attention to growing concern about Gaza by focusing on aid.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, reiterated promises to join the Israeli air drop scheme but also insisted that ground convoys were the only way to get enough food into Gaza to feed its people.
'Access to aid must be urgently accelerated over the coming hours and days,' he said. 'Whilst airdrops will help to alleviate the worst of the suffering, land routes serve as the only viable and sustainable means of providing aid into Gaza. These measures must be fully implemented and further barriers on aid removed. The world is watching.'
Although aid agencies say that only a ceasefire will allow Gaza to obtain all the aid it needs, they welcomed the easing of restrictions yesterday. 'We have enough food in, or on its way to, the region to feed the entire population of 2.1 million people for almost three months,' the World Food Programme said.
'These new commitments to improve operating conditions come on top of earlier assurances from Israel to strengthen facilitation of humanitarian assistance.'
UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher said aid restrictions appeared to have eased by Sunday evening, citing initial reports indicating that over 100 truckloads of aid were collected. He warned in a statement, however, that 'sustained action' was needed to 'stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis'.
In Israel, a boat attempting to bring a symbolic amount of aid into the territory was brought into the port of Ashod, along with its 21 crew members from the Pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition activist group – including two French parliamentarians and two Al Jazeera journalists. Israeli forces seized the vessel in international waters earlier in the weekend.
In Gaza, six people died from malnutrition in 24 hours, the Hamas-run health ministry said on Sunday, with the World Health Organisation stating that the condition remained 'on a dangerous trajectory, marked by a spike in deaths in July'.
AHMED JIHAD IBRAHIM AL-ARINI/ GETTY IMAGES
It said it had recorded 63 deaths from malnutrition this month, including 24 children under five, one child over five, and 38 adults. That compared with a total of 11 deaths over the first six months of the year.
Mervat Najm, 53, who has nine children, said she felt more secure, even if she had yet to receive more food herself. 'We woke up and for once we felt some psychological relief,' she said. 'But no organisation has contacted us. We're glued to our phones, trying to keep them charged, just in case we receive a message saying we can collect aid.
'We just want the aid to come in safely. A few days ago my 17-year-old son Abdel Rahman was carrying a bag of flour when someone pulled a knife on him and stole it.'
A key marker of confidence is the price of food on what remains of the open market in Gaza. 'Just two days ago I bought a pack of pasta for 35 shekels (£7.75). Today, I found the same pack for 15 shekels,' said Doaa Masoud, a teacher and father of three who has been displaced to Muwasi.
'Traders are beginning to lower prices. Flour was selling for 100 shekels per kilo a few days ago. Today some sellers are offering it for 25 shekels. But for us, as displaced families, we're still living off promises, not real assistance.'
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