Israel announces daily military pauses as fury mounts over starvation in Gaza
Scores of Palestinians have died of starvation in recent weeks in a crisis attributed by humanitarian organisations and the UN to Israel's blockade of almost all aid into the territory. The World Food Programme said 90,000 women and children were in urgent need of treatment for malnutrition and that one in three people were going without food for days.
The Israeli military said it had began a 'tactical pause' in the densely populated areas of Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi to 'increase the scale of humanitarian aid' into the strip. The pause would be repeated every day from 10am to 8pm local time until further notice and Israel would continue fighting in other areas of Gaza.
Israel said the measures were designed to improve the humanitarian situation and 'refute the false claim of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip'.
Israel released footage of an airdrop of aid conducted overnight, which included flour, sugar and canned food. It also said it would establish humanitarian corridors to allow the UN to deliver food and medicine to the population, as well as turn on the power to a desalination plant to provide water to residents of Gaza.
The UN said on Thursday that humanitarian pauses would allow 'the scale up of humanitarian assistance' in the strip.
Egyptian aid trucks had begun to enter Gaza on Sunday morning and Jordan's police force posted a video showing trucks laden with aid on their way in to the territory.
At least 128 people have died from starvation in Gaza, more than half of them children. A 10-year-old girl, Nour Abu Selaa, died of hunger on Sunday morning. Images of bodies hollowed-out from hunger and of dead infants whose stomachs had distended shocked the world and led to a wave of global condemnation of Israel's conduct.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, accused Israel of flouting international law by blocking aid into Gaza and warned the country was losing support internationally. 'Quite clearly it is a breach of international law to stop food being delivered which was a decision that Israel made in March,' he said on Sunday.
A boat, the Handala, carrying aid to Gaza, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was intercepted 100km off Gaza's shore on Sunday by Israeli security forces and the passengers arrested.
Israel has denied there is a starvation crisis in Gaza and blamed any hunger issues on the UN, claiming a failure of the organisation to adequately distribute aid. The UN said that the majority of their requests to transport aid into Gaza are rejected by the Israeli military.
Israel initially blocked all aid into Gaza for two and a half months, before allowing a small amount of aid to enter the territory. It has allowed in 4,500 UN trucks into Gaza since then, about 70 trucks each day, a far cry from the 500 trucks needed daily to feed its population.
Israel has publicly disparaged the UN-led aid system in Gaza, accusing it of allowing Hamas to systematically siphon aid – a claim that the UN has rejected.
Israel has supported the private US-led Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as an alternative to the UN, but its two months in Gaza have been marred by consistent killings of aid seekers. More than 1,000 people have been killed while trying to get aid, mostly at GHF distribution sites, the UN says.
Humanitarians have warned that the scale of malnourishment means aid needs to flood the territory in order to save the lives of people whose bodies are already shutting down.
'This truce will mean nothing if it doesn't turn into a real opportunity to save lives,' Dr Muneer al-Boursh, the director general of Gaza's health ministry, told the Associated Press.
As Israel announced its new humanitarian measures, it continued to bombard the Gaza Strip, killing 16 people in separate strikes. One strike killed at least nine people, including three children, hitting a tent sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military announced that two soldiers were killed in Gaza, bringing the total number of soldiers killed since the conflict began to 898.
The humanitarian pause comes as ceasefire negotiations continue to flounder, after both the US and Israel recalled their negotiating teams from Qatar on Friday. The US and Israel accused Hamas of not being serious about a truce, while Hamas and mediators claimed the withdrawal was merely a negotiating tactic.
Israel launched the war in Gaza after the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas-led militants which killed about 1,200 people. Almost 60,000 people in Gaza have been killed during Israel's military operation over the last 21 months.
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