Israel begins “tactical pause” in parts of Gaza to open aid corridors as concerns over hunger mount

The Israeli military began a limited pause in fighting in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day as part of a series of steps that it says would give the United Nations and other aid agencies secure land routes to tackle a deepening hunger crisis.

The Israel Defense Forces said it would begin a “tactical pause” in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi, three areas of the territory with large populations, to “increase the scale of humanitarian aid” entering the Gaza Strip. It said the pause would begin every day at 10 a.m. local time, effective Sunday, and continue until further notice.

“Whichever path we choose, we will have to continue to allow the entry of minimal humanitarian supplies,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

The military early Sunday carried out aid airdrops into Gaza, which included packages of aid with flour, sugar and canned food, “as part of the ongoing efforts to allow and facilitate the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip,” the IDF posted on Telegram.

Food experts have warned for months of the risk of famine in Gaza, where Israel has restricted aid because it says Hamas siphons off goods to help bolster its rule, without providing evidence for that claim. Images emerging from Gaza in recent days of emaciated children have fanned global criticism of Israel, including from close allies, who have called for an end to the war and the humanitarian catastrophe it has spawned.

“What’s happening in Gaza right now is appalling. Gaza is now in the brink of a full catastrophe, and we’ve been working out, over the months, to try and relief (sic) the sufferings of the Palestinian people,” French Foreign Minister Jean‑Noël  Barrot said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

The United Nations’ food agency welcomed the steps to ease aid restrictions, but said a broader ceasefire was needed to ensure goods reached everyone in need in Gaza.

“Welcome announcement of humanitarian pauses in Gaza to allow our aid through,” U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher said on X. “In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window.”

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said on Sunday that hospitals recorded six new deaths due to malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including two children. The organization said at least 133 people, including 87 children, have died from malnutrition in the Gaza Strip.

Israel said the new measures were taking place while it continues its offensive against Hamas in other areas. Ahead of the pause, Palestinian health officials in Gaza said at least 27 Palestinians were killed in separate attacks.

“This (humanitarian) truce will mean nothing if it doesn’t turn into a real opportunity to save lives,” said Dr. Muneer al-Boursh, director general of Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, who called for a flood of medical supplies and other goods to help treat child malnutrition. “Every delay is measured by another funeral.”

International aid envoys headed to Gaza

Trucks loaded with aid from Egypt and Jordan are headed for Gaza amid Israel’s “tactical pause.” The Egyptian Red Crescent dispatched more than 100 trucks carrying over 1,200 tons of food supplies, including 840 tons of flour and 450 tons of assorted food baskets, toward the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Photographers in Gaza captured the first images of trucks carrying aid entering the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing in Rafah, Egypt.

Jordan’s security agency posted a video on social media purportedly showing a line of aid-loaded trucks moving toward Gaza.

“We actually have 52 tons of humanitarian help stuck in El-Arish in Egypt, a few kilometers away from Gaza,” Barrot said Sunday. “So we’re exploring all options to seize the opportunity offered by the Israeli government by opening the skies of Gaza, but we call for immediate, unhindered, and massive access by all means of humanitarian help to those who need it most.”

The UN’s World Food Program said it welcomes Israel’s move and that it has enough food to feed the entire population of 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza for nearly three months. In a statement, it said that a third of Gaza’s population were not eating for days and nearly half a million were enduring famine-like conditions.

It said it hopes that Israel’s assurances for secure corridors will “allow for a surge in urgently needed food assistance to reach hungry people without further delays.” However, the WFP reiterated that a ceasefire is “the only way for humanitarian assistance to reach the entire civilian population in Gaza with critical food supplies in a consistent, predictable, orderly and safe manner.”

Israel’s decision to order a localized pause in fighting came days after ceasefire efforts between Israel and Hamas appeared to be in doubt. On Friday, Israel and the U.S. recalled their negotiating teams, blaming Hamas, and Israel said it was considering “alternative options” to ceasefire talks with the militant group.

Israel says it is prepared to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something the group has refused to agree to.

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawi said that Israel’s change of tack on the humanitarian crisis amounted to an acknowledgement that there were starving Palestinians in Gaza and that the move was meant to improve its international standing and not save lives.

He said that Israel “will not escape punishment and will inevitably pay the price for these criminal practices.”

At least 27 Palestinians killed in latest strikes, health officials say

The Awda Hospital in Nuseirat said Israeli forces killed at least 11 people and wounded 101 as they were headed toward a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution site in central Gaza. GHF, which denies involvement in any of the violence near its sites, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The military said it was looking into the report.

Elsewhere, a strike hit a tent sheltering a displaced family in the Asdaa area, northwest of the southern city of Khan Younis, killing at least nine people, according to Nasser Hospital. The dead included a father and his two children, and another father and his son, the hospital said.

In Gaza City, a strike hit an apartment late Saturday in the city’s western side, killing four people, including two women, said the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service. In Deir-al-Balah early Sunday, a strike on a tent near a desalination plant killed a couple and another woman, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes. However, it usually blames Hamas for civilian casualties, saying the Palestinian militant group operates in populated areas.

The military announced Sunday that another two soldiers were killed in Gaza, bringing the total number of soldiers killed since Oct. 7, 2023, to 898.

The war began with Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israel, when militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. Hamas still holds 50 hostages, more than half of them believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 59,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.

The Israeli military has intercepted a Gaza-bound aid ship seeking to break the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory, detaining 21 international activists and journalists and seizing all cargo, including baby formula, food and medicine, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said Sunday.

The coalition that operates the vessel Handala said the Israeli military “violently intercepted” the ship in international waters about 40 nautical miles from Gaza, cutting the cameras and communication, just before midnight Saturday.

“All cargo was non-military, civilian and intended for direct distribution to a population facing deliberate starvation and medical collapse under Israel’s illegal blockade,” the group said in a statement.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment. Israel’s Foreign Ministry posted on X early Sunday that the Navy stopped the vessel and was bringing it to shore.

It was the second ship operated by the coalition that Israel has prevented in recent months from delivering aid to Gaza, where food experts have for months warned of the risk of famine. Activist Greta Thunberg was among 12 activists on board the ship Madleen when the Israeli military seized it in June.