
Aid to Gaza gives us legitimacy to keep fighting, says Israeli army
'There is no hunger in the Strip,' an Israeli army spokesperson declared on Sunday.
Speaking at a press briefing, the spokesperson claimed Israeli forces are facilitating humanitarian assistance: 'We are working to bring aid into Gaza and ensure it reaches the people, not Hamas.'
The UN, the US and Iraeli army officers speaking anonymously to the New York Times have said that Hamas does not have access to the aid.
The official also defended the continuation of the war, saying: 'I am not comfortable with bringing aid into Gaza, but that gives us legitimacy to continue the war.'
Israel has faced growing international criticism for obstructing the flow of food and medicine into Gaza, particularly into the north, where aid groups say famine conditions have been present for months.

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Khaleej Times
3 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Gaza famine warning as Israel resists ceasefire calls
Gaza is slipping into famine, UN-backed experts warned on Tuesday, as the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said the death toll in the nearly 22-month war had surpassed 60,000. The health ministry figure excludes deaths from hunger in the Palestinian territory gripped by dire humanitarian conditions made worse by Israel's total blockade of aid from March to May. This week, Israel launched a daily pause in fighting and opened secure routes to enable UN and non-governmental agencies to distribute food on Gaza's devastated streets. Hundreds of truckloads of aid have begun to arrive. But Israeli strikes continued overnight, killing 30 people in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Gaza's civil defence agency and experts warn a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions is imminent. "The worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in the Gaza Strip," said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC), a coalition of monitors tasked by the UN to warn of impending crises. The World Food Programme's emergency director, Ross Smith, likened the situation to some of the worst famines of the past century. "This is unlike anything we have seen in this century. It reminds us of previous disasters in Ethiopia or Biafra," Smith said via video-link from Rome. "We need urgent action now." In a statement released ahead of the IPC report, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office accused Hamas of distorting casualty figures and accused the group of looting food aid destined for Palestinian civilians. "While the situation in Gaza is difficult and Israel has been working to ensure aid delivery, Hamas benefits from attempting to fuel the perception of a humanitarian crisis," the statement said. "We already allow significant amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza every single day, including food, water and medicine. Unfortunately, Hamas... has been stealing aid from the Gaza population, many times by shooting Palestinians." As late as Sunday, Netanyahu had been insisting there was "no starvation in Gaza" but even his close international ally, US President Donald Trump, has now warned the situation appears to be "real starvation". Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation. Then on Sunday, faced with a mounting international chorus of alarm, Israel began a series of "tactical pauses" while allowed aid trucks to cross two border crossings into Gaza, and Jordanian and Emirati planes to airdrop aid. Shipments have ramped up, but for the IPC this effort will not prove enough unless aid agencies are granted "immediate, unimpeded" humanitarian access. "Failure to act now will result in widespread death in much of the Strip," it said, warning that 16 children under the age of five had died of hunger since July 17. "Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths," it said. According to Netanyahu's office, the pause in military operations covers "key populated areas" between 10:00 am (0700 GMT) and 8:00 pm every day. Designated aid convoy routes will be secure from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm. COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry body in charge of civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said more than 200 truckloads of aid were distributed by the UN and aid agencies on Monday. Another 260 trucks were permitted to cross into Gaza to deposit aid at collection points, four UN tankers brought in fuel and 20 pallets of aid were airdropped from Jordanian and Emirati planes, COGAT said. Overnight, however, strikes continued. Gaza's civil defence agency said on Tuesday that Israeli air strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians, including women and children, in the central Nuseirat district. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the strikes were carried out overnight and into the morning and "targeted a number of citizens' homes" in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The local Al-Awda hospital said it had received "the bodies of 30 martyrs, including 14 women and 12 children". An Israeli military spokesman told AFP that he would need more information to enable him to look into the strikes. With aid experts pushing for a ceasefire to enable a large-scale humanitarian operation, Israel's foreign minister addressed reporters in Jerusalem to denounce what he called a "distorted campaign" of international pressure. Gideon Saar told reporters that if Israel was to halt the conflict while Hamas is still in power in Gaza and still holding hostages it would be a "tragedy for both Israelis and Palestinians". "It ain't gonna happen, no matter how much pressure is put on Israel," he said.


Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Gaza death toll since dawn rises to 62
Israeli forces have killed at least 62 Palestinians across Gaza since dawn today, including 19 aid seekers, sources in Gaza hospitals have told Al Jazeera. Health officials have said that the dead include people who were trying to access humanitarian aid when they were targeted. Israel has struck several areas in the enclave, pushing hospitals already under strain to their limits. Casualty figures are expected to rise as rescue teams continue to search through the rubble left by ongoing Israeli strikes. Conditions in Gaza have deteriorated as Israel has completely blocked all aid from entering Gaza. Global hunger watchdog Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has warned that famine is already unfolding across Gaza.

Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Gaza death toll tops 60,000 as Israel levels homes in Nuseirat camp
Israel killed dozens of Palestinian children and women in renewed heavy bombing in central Gaza on Tuesday, as the death toll from the ongoing war surpassed 60,000. Fighter jets carried out a series of strikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp, levelling several residential buildings and killing approximately 40 people, including 14 women and 12 children, according to local media reports. The targeted homes were said to belong to the Abu Ataya, Siam and Abu Nabhan families. Emergency teams reported that the scale of destruction has made it difficult to determine an exact death toll. The nearby al-Awda Hospital said that many of the bodies arrived severely dismembered. Local sources stated that three families were effectively wiped out from the civil registry in what they described as a 'massacre'. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters In a separate incident, Israeli forces killed at least 19 Palestinians queuing for food at aid distribution centres. Air strikes also targeted various other locations across the Gaza Strip, including areas previously designated by Israel as 'humanitarian zones'. Al-Mawasi Field Hospital announced that four civilians were killed and 14 others wounded following an Israeli strike in al-Mawasi, an area in southern Gaza labelled a 'safe zone' by Israeli authorities. By midday, the Palestinian health ministry reported that at least 112 people had been killed in the preceding 24 hours, with a further 637 wounded. This has brought the death toll from the Israeli war on Gaza since October 2023 to at least 60,034, including at least 17,000 children. The number of wounded exceeds 145,000, according to the ministry. Starvation and genocide The latest wave of heavy bombardment comes amid growing international scrutiny of Israel's actions in the blockaded Gaza Strip. Israel has faced criticism over the starvation, killing and displacement of the territory's population of more than two million. Two prominent Israeli human rights organisations on Monday accused the Israeli government of committing acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI) each released separate reports, alleging that Israel's conduct in Gaza constitutes genocidal acts and incitement to genocide. 'Worst-case scenario of famine unfolding in Gaza,' declares global hunger monitor Read More » In its report, B'Tselem examined Israel's policies in Gaza and statements made by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders on its goals in the enclave. It led the group to 'the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip'. Meanwhile, PHRI's report presented a detailed legal analysis of Israel's war on Gaza, focusing on the dismantling of Gaza's healthcare system. It stated that Israel's aggression meets the criteria for genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which Israel is a signatory. The world's leading hunger monitoring system on Tuesday issued a warning that the 'worst-case scenario of famine' is unfolding in Gaza due to the Israeli-imposed starvation. 'Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City,' the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said in a new report. 'Amid relentless conflict, mass displacement, severely restricted humanitarian access, and the collapse of essential services, including healthcare, the crisis has reached an alarming and deadly turning point.' The warning comes as at least 147 Palestinians, including 88 children, have died from starvation since Israel's war on Gaza began.