Israel sends tanks into Gaza's Deir al-Balah; hostage families concerned
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
Israeli tanks pushed into southern and eastern districts of the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah for the first time on Monday, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held.
The area is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and capabilities of the militant group Hamas.
Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said.
"U.N. staff remain in Deir al-Balah, and two U.N. guesthouses have been struck, despite parties having been informed of the locations of U.N. premises, which are inviolable. These locations – as with all civilian sites – must be protected, regardless of evacuation orders," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
To the south in Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike killed at least five people, including a husband and wife and their two children in a tent, medics said.
In its daily update, Gaza's Health Ministry said at least 130 Palestinians had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, one of the highest such totals in recent weeks.
There was no immediate Israeli comment on the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis incidents.
Israeli sources have said the reason the army had stayed out of the Deir al-Balah districts was because they suspected Hamas might be holding hostages there. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in captivity in Gaza are believed to be still alive.
Families of the hostages have expressed concern for their relatives and demanded an explanation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Israel Katz, and the army chief on how they will protect them.
"The people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangered the hostages - both the living and the deceased. No one will be able to claim they didn't know what was at stake," the Hostage Families Forum Headquarters said in a statement.
Gaza health officials have warned of potential "mass deaths" in coming days from hunger, which has killed at least 19 people since Saturday, the Hamas-run territory's Health Ministry said.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was appalled by an accelerating breakdown of humanitarian conditions in Gaza "where the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing," Dujarric said.
"He deplores the growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition," said Dujarric.
"Israel has the obligation to allow and facilitate by all the means at its disposal the humanitarian relief provided by the United Nations and by other humanitarian organizations."
Health officials say hospitals have been running out of fuel, food aid, and medicine, risking a halt to vital operations.
Health Ministry spokesperson Khalil Al-Deqran said medical staff have been depending on one meal a day and that hundreds of people flock to hospitals every day, suffering from fatigue and exhaustion.
In southern Gaza, the Health Ministry said an Israeli undercover unit had on Monday detained Marwan Al-Hams, head of Gaza's field hospitals, in a raid that killed a local journalist and wounded another outside a field medical facility run by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
An ICRC spokesperson said the ICRC had treated patients injured in the incident but did not comment further on their status. It said it was "very concerned about the safety and security" around the field hospital.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel has raided and attacked hospitals across Gaza during the war, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes, an accusation the group denies. Sending undercover forces to carry out arrests is rare.
The incursion into Deir al-Balah and growing number of deaths appeared to be complicating efforts to secure a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt, with U.S. backing.
A Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday that the militant group was angered by the mounting death toll and hunger crisis, and that this could affect the talks on a 60-day truce and hostage deal.
AID WAITING
UNRWA, the U.N. refugee agency dedicated to Palestinians, said on X it was receiving desperate messages from Gaza warning of starvation, including from its own staff, as food prices have soared.
"Meanwhile, just outside Gaza, stockpiled in warehouses, UNRWA has enough food for the entire population for over three months. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale," it said.
The Health Ministry said on Sunday at least 67 people were killed by Israeli fire as they waited for U.N. aid trucks to enter Gaza. It said at least 36 aid seekers were killed a day earlier.
Israel's military said its troops had fired warning shots to remove what it said was "an immediate threat." It said initial findings suggested reported casualty figures were inflated.
Israel's military said it "views the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as a matter of utmost importance, and works to enable and facilitate its entry in coordination with the international community".
Britain and more than 20 other countries called on Monday for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and criticised the Israeli government's aid delivery model after hundreds of Palestinians were killed near sites distributing food. Israel rejected the statement "as it is disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas."
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed over 59,000 Palestinians, according to health officials, displaced almost the entire population, and caused a humanitarian crisis.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
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'That's why he directed Witkoff to come up with a creative aid/food program solution. He believes it's a terrible situation and needs to end,' the senior official wrote. The creative solution referred to the GHF, the Israeli- and U.S.-backed effort to replace the U.N.-coordinated system for aid that had operated in Gaza for decades, the senior official said. Israel charges that the U.N. is corrupted by Hamas. Hamas, which has run the Gazan government for nearly two decades, attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 and taking 250 hostages. The group continues to hold about 50 hostages who were abducted that day. About 20 are still believed to be alive. Israel's retaliatory military campaign to eliminate Hamas and free the hostages has left most of Gaza in ruins and more than 60,000 dead, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but says the majority of the dead are women and children. 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Israel has said the U.N. and others are free to distribute food, but their own incompetence and Hamas sympathies are preventing it. Israel, and the GHF, say that hundreds of food-laden trucks have been inspected by the Israel Defense Forces and are waiting just inside the enclave for U.N. pickup. 'It's a moment for the United Nations and the entire humanitarian community to step up, not step back,' Fay said. 'Let's stop pretending there's only one way to deliver aid. … Let's stop letting organizational ego dictate operational decisions. The old model is broken, and ours is working.' In a letter Thursday to GHF Executive Chairman Johnnie Moore, U.N. Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher 'reiterated that the U.N. stands ready to engage with any partner to ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid reaches the people in Gaza,' a U.N. spokeswoman, Stephanie Tremblay, told reporters Friday. But, she said Fletcher wrote, 'any such partnership must adhere to the globally accepted principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. This means that aid must go where needs are greatest and without discrimination, and that we answer to civilians in need, not the warring parties.' He expressed a willingness to meet with Moore. In a letter of reply Friday, released by the foundation, Moore said that the 'GHF exists to be part of the solution, not to replace or rival any institution, but to help fill the gaps with transparency and effectiveness. We are willing to put our differences aside and to adapt to help people now.' Moore said he looked forward to a face-to-face meeting, although none is known to be scheduled. On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney became the latest world leader to call for the GHF program to end. 'Israel's control of aid distribution must be replaced by comprehensive provision of humanitarian assistance led by international organizations,' who said blocking such aid 'is a violation of international law.' U.S. officials have strongly rejected the idea that Israel was responsible for the lack of food, charging Hamas with 'weaponizing' and stealing aid provided by the U.N. and others, and calling for additional international support for the foundation's efforts. 'Of course we want to see as much aid getting into Gaza as possible in a way that is not being looted by Hamas, and this mechanism, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been a way to do that,' Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesperson, said at a briefing Thursday. Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned in protest of the Biden administration's support for Israel during the start of the Gaza war, said that for the U.S. government there was now a 'sunk costs' problem with Israel. 'Contemplating the fact that our partner is now engaged in the forcible starvation of a people it has spent the last two years bombing means a lot of politicians have to either do what politicians are worst at and admit they have been wrong, or ignore the evidence of their eyes and find some way to avoid facing the truth,' Paul said. Some former officials said that Trump's viewpoint on the conflict on Gaza has been clear and consistent, even as the suffering becomes more apparent. 'As tragic as the suffering is of the Palestinians in Gaza, President Trump is not fooled by Hamas' vicious strategy of weaponizing civilian suffering to manipulate the world,' said Jason Greenblatt, who served as White House envoy to the Middle East during Trump's first term and had also been a longtime attorney to the president.
