Israel has said it will halt military operations each day for 10 hours in three areas of Gaza and allow aid to come in through new corridors as it seeks to quell international fury over a growing starvation crisis.
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.
Soon after the humanitarian pause began, Israel carried out an airstrike on a building in Gaza City, killing a woman and her four children.
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Israel said the measures were designed to improve the humanitarian situation and “refute the false claim of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip”, releasing footage of an overnight aid airdrop, that included flour, sugar and canned food. Jordan and the United Arab Emirates also carried out airdrops on Sunday afternoon.
Israel also said it would establish humanitarian corridors to allow the UN to deliver food and medicine to Gaza, as well as turn on the power to a desalination plant to provide water.
The news of the humanitarian pauses was greeted warily by residents, who did not believe that Israel wanted to lift them out of the throes of famine.
“Opening the humanitarian crossings to allow the entry of aid will not change anything on the ground, even if it continues for a week or two, because the humanitarian crisis and famine in Gaza have exceeded all expectations,” said Eyad al-Banna, a maths teacher and father of seven.
Jordan and UAE airdropping aid over the Gaza Strip. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPA
He and other residents said they did not notice any change in the availability or price of goods in the market on Sunday, besides flour, which fell by about 20% overnight. A doctor said no medical supplies had reached him at al-Nasser hospital, where the need for nutritional for malnourished supplements is urgent.
Others were more critical of the new aid measures, particularly the airdrops. “The method of airdropping aid is insulting to the Palestinian people – it was used at the beginning of the war and caused the deaths of many civilians,” said Hikmat al-Masri, an academic and mother from northern Gaza.
The Palestinian ministry of health recorded 10 injuries from falling aid boxes on Sunday.
The World Health Programme (WFP) welcomed the new measures, which it said it hoped would allow for a increase in the supply of urgently needed food.
“WFP has enough food in – or on its way to – the region to feed the entire population of 2.1 million people for almost three months,” it said in a statement on Sunday, adding that a ceasefire was needed to ensure food reached the entire population in Gaza.
People carry sacks of flour unloaded from a humanitarian aid convoy that reached Gaza City on Sunday. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP
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 133 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.
‘I can’t find food’: despair in Gaza as children face malnutrition – video
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 60 miles 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 the majority of their requests to transport aid into Gaza were 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 since allowed in 4,500 UN trucks into Gaza, about 70 trucks each day, far fewer than the 500 trucks needed daily to feed its population.
Mourners attend the funeral of Palestinians who were killed while trying to receive aid on Saturday. Photograph: Ramadan Abed/Reuters
Israel has disparaged publicly 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 those seeking aid. More than 1,000 people have been killed while trying to get aid, mostly at GHF distribution sites, the UN says.
Humanitarians have said 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 latest humanitarian measures, it continued to bombard the Gaza Strip, killing 38 people, including 23 people seeking aid. . 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 to 898 the total number of soldiers killed since the conflict began.
Relatives mourn those killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City on Sunday. Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock
Some aid organisations criticised the partial aid expansion, and called for the immediate opening of all crossings into Gaza.
“What’s needed is the immediate opening of all crossings for full, unhindered, and safe aid delivery across all of Gaza and a permanent ceasefire. Anything less risks being little more than a tactical gesture,” said Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam lead for the occupied Palestinian territories.
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 that killed about 1,200 people. Almost 60,000 people in Gaza have been killed during Israel’s military operation over the last 21 months.