Israel says it will allow controlled entry of goods into Gaza via merchants
Israel's COGAT said a mechanism has been approved by the cabinet to expand the scope of humanitarian aid, allowing the entry of supplies to Gaza through the private sector.
The agency said the approved goods include basic food products, baby food, fruits and vegetables, and hygiene supplies.
More: More Gazans die seeking aid and from hunger, as burial shrouds in short supply
"This aims to increase the volume of aid entering the Gaza Strip, while reducing reliance on aid collection by the U.N. and international organisations," it added.
It was unclear how this aid operation would work given the widespread destruction in Gaza.
Palestinian and U.N. officials say Gaza needs around 600 aid trucks to enter per day to meet the humanitarian requirements - the number Israel used to allow into Gaza before the war.
Images of starving Palestinians including children have alarmed the world in recent weeks, while a video released by Hamas on Sunday showing an emaciated captive drew sharp criticism from Western powers.
Israel in response to a rising international uproar, announced last week steps to let more aid reach Gaza, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, approving air drops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.
More: US envoy tells Israeli hostage families he's working on plan to end Gaza War
Hamas said it was prepared to coordinate with the Red Cross to deliver aid to hostages it holds in Gaza, if Israel permanently opens humanitarian corridors and halts airstrikes during the distribution of aid.
Israel and the United States urged the U.N. in May to work through an organisation they back, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which employs a U.S. logistics firm run by a former CIA officer and armed U.S. veterans.
The U.N. refused as it questioned GHF neutrality and accused the distribution model of militarising aid and forcing displacement.
Palestinians were killed near GHF sites where limited aid was distributed, with the U.N. estimating that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food since May, most near the organisation's distribution sites.
GHF denies that there have been deadly incidents at its sites, and says the deadliest have been near other aid convoys.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli figures.
Israel's offensive has since killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials who do not distinguish between fighters and non-combatants.
According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive. Hamas, thus far, has barred humanitarian organisations from having any kind of access to the hostages and families have little or no details of their conditions.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Writing by Tala Ramadan and Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Kim Coghill and Michael Perry)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
28 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Stanford Daily sues Trump administration over deportation threats
Stanford's student newspaper sued the Trump administration on Wednesday for threatening to deport any noncitizen who criticizes Israel or U.S. foreign policy, saying the government is violating freedom of speech and intimidating campus journalists into censoring their own articles. 'In the United States of America, no one should fear a midnight knock on the door for voicing the wrong opinion,' lawyers for the Stanford Daily, the university's independent 133-year-old publication, wrote in a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Jose. They said staff writers holding legal U.S. visas 'are declining assignments related to the conflict in the Middle East, worried that even reporting on the conflict will endanger their immigration status.' One editor resigned from the newspaper, another editor and present and former reporters have asked to have their articles removed from the website and 'international students have also largely stopped talking to Stanford Daily journalists,' the suit said. It was filed a day after Stanford officials announced that they might lay off 363 non-teaching employees this fall because of a $750 million tax increase imposed by President Donald Trump's budget bill. The lawsuit is among multiple legal challenges to the Trump administration's attacks on pro-Palestinian protesters and their universities. A central issue, cited by the newspaper's lawyers, is Secretary of State Marco Rubio's claim that he can order deportation of any noncitizen for statements he considers 'anti-American' or 'anti-Israel.' Rubio cited a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 that allows the secretary of state to revoke a noncitizen's legal status if the secretary decides the person's 'beliefs, statements or associations … compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest.' He invoked that provision against Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident and pro-Palestinian activist at Columbia University who was arrested in March and held in a Louisiana jail for 104 days before a federal judge ordered his release. Other campus activists have also been jailed, and Stanford reported that the visas of six students were revoked less than two weeks after Rubio's announcement in March. The lawsuit said Rubio's claim that a student's criticism of Israel harms a 'compelling United States foreign policy interest' is questionable — but regardless, his actions violate the Constitution's First Amendment, which protects noncitizens under a 1945 Supreme Court ruling. 'The First Amendment cements America's promise that the government may not subject a speaker to disfavored treatment because those in power do not like his or her message,' wrote the attorneys, Marc Van Der Hout of San Francisco and Conor Fitzpatrick of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. They asked a federal judge for an injunction that would halt the threats of deportation against critics of Israel or U.S. foreign policy. Tricia McLaughlin, spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security in the Trump administration, called the suit 'baseless.' 'DHS takes its role in removing threats to the public and our communities seriously, and the idea that enforcing federal law in that regard constitutes some kind of prior restraint on speech is laughable,' McLaughlin said in a statement. She said the United States has 'no room' for 'the rest of the world's terrorist sympathizers.'
Chicago Tribune
28 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Stanford paper sues Trump administration over deportation fears
Stanford University's independent student newspaper sued Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, citing fears of deportation for noncitizen reporters at the Stanford Daily. Two of the Stanford Daily's writers, who are international students, say that they have refrained from reporting on campus protests, vigils and other events related to Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza out of fears that their visas would be revoked. The students, who are not identified, say that creates a chilling effect on their free speech rights. 'Writers present on student visas are declining assignments related to the conflict in the Middle East, worried that even reporting on the conflict will endanger their lawful immigration status,' according to the lawsuit, filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression in federal court in San Jose, California. The Departments of State and Homeland Security didn't immediately respond to requests to comment. The lawsuit challenges a section of immigration law that the government has said allows it to deport noncitizens if the Secretary of State determines them to pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy. That's the same law that the government is using as it attempts to deport several students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses, including Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil. 'Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump administration are trying to turn the inalienable human right of free speech into a privilege contingent upon the whims of a federal bureaucrat, triggering deportation proceedings against noncitizens residing lawfully in this country for their protected political speech regarding American and Israeli foreign policy,' the complaint argues. The case is Stanford Daily v. Rubio, Case No. 25-cv-06618, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose). More stories like this are available on
Wall Street Journal
29 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
WSJ Opinion: Israel Considers Reoccupying Gaza as the Humanitarian Crisis Continues
Israel contemplates reoccupying Gaza, but the move could lead to being responsible for millions of Palestinian lives and the possibility of Hamas returning to power. How can Benjamin Netanyahu raise the pressure on Hamas to accept a deal? Photo: Monica Espitia
