Israel to pause fighting in three Gaza areas as concerns over hunger surge

International alarm over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has increased and as Israel and the US appeared on Friday to abandon ceasefire negotiations with Hamas. Picture: AP

The Israeli military said it would pause fighting in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day and open secure routes for aid delivery to desperate Palestinians.

The steps are meant to address a surge in hunger in the territory as Israel faces a wave of international criticism over its conduct in the 21-month war.

The military 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 territory.

The pauses will last from 10am to 8pm (7am to 5pm Irish time) until further notice. The three locations are areas where the military had not renewed ground operations since March, when it resumed its Gaza offensive.

Designated secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine will also be in place permanently from 6am until 11pm, the military said.

The military also said that it carried out aid airdrops into Gaza, which included packages of aid with flour, sugar and canned food.

The Egyptian state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV said on Sunday that aid started moving towards Gaza from Egypt.

On Thursday, the UN said humanitarian pauses in Gaza would allow "the scale up of humanitarian assistance" and said Israel had not been providing enough route alternatives for its convoys, hindering aid access.

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.

Images emerging from Gaza in recent days of emaciated children have fanned global criticism of Israel, including by close allies, who have called for an end to the war and the humanitarian catastrophe it has spawned.

Israel said the new measures were taking place while it continues its offensive against Hamas in other areas.

The local pause in fighting came days after ceasefire efforts between Israel and Hamas appeared to be in doubt. Israel and the US appeared on Friday to abandon ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, saying it had become clear that the militants did not want a deal.

After ending the latest ceasefire in March, Israel cut off the entry of food, medicine, fuel and other supplies completely to Gaza for two and a half months, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages.

Under international pressure, Israel slightly eased the blockade in May.

Since then, it has allowed around 4,500 trucks for the UN and other aid groups in to distribute.

The average of 69 trucks a day, however, is far below the 500 to 600 trucks a day the UN says are needed for Gaza.

The UN says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because hungry crowds and gangs take most of it from its arriving trucks.

As a way to divert aid delivery away from the UN, Israel has backed the US-registered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which in May opened four centres distributing boxes of food supplies.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near those new aid sites, the UN human rights office says.

Israel has railed against the UN throughout the war, saying that its system allowed Hamas to steal aid, without providing evidence.

The UN denies that claim and says its delivery mechanism was the best way to bring aid to Palestinians.

The military said the new steps were made in co-ordination with the UN and other humanitarian groups.

Much of Gaza’s population, squeezed by fighting into ever tinier patches of land, now relies on aid.

The war began with Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023, 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.

Its count doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says that more than half of the dead are women and children.

The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organisations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters stormed southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.

Since then, Israel's offensive against Hamas has killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health officials, reduced much of the enclave to ruins and displaced nearly the entire population.

• Associated Press and Reuters