Israel pauses military action, opens aid lines amid Gaza crisis
More than 125 people have died due to malnutrition, including 85 children, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said over the weekend. A five-month-old baby, Zainab Abu Haleeb, died of malnutrition at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza on July 26.
In recent weeks, more than 800 people have been killed while trying to reach food, according to the United Nations, mostly in shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centers.
Israeli officials have said they've allowed enough food into Gaza since war broke out in October 2023 after Hamas attacked Israel, blaming the terrorist group for suffering in a region of 2.2 million people.
Meanwhile, ceasefire talks have stalled, with no permanent end to the fighting in sight. Here's what to know about the growing humanitarian crisis.
What's going on in Gaza?
Beginning July 27, Israel will pause military action in a humanitarian area along the coast of Gaza for 10 hours at a time, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time, each day.
The military said designated secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine will also be in place between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.
Tom Fletcher, aid chief for the United Nations, called the move a "welcome announcement" in a post 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," Fletcher wrote.
What do human rights groups say?
The U.N.'s World Food Program also welcomed the news, saying in a statement, "we hope these measures will allow for a surge in urgently needed food assistance to reach hungry people without further delays."
Israel's move comes after 111 groups signed a joint statement calling for governments to take action, as mass starvation spread and restrictions on humanitarian aid prevented resources from reaching Palestinians in Gaza.
"The Government of Israel's restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death," the groups, made up of mostly aid and human rights organizations, wrote.
Why was aid restricted before?
Hunger in Gaza escalated after Israel cut off supplies in March.
Israel had said it was committed to allowing in aid - but needed to control it to prevent it from being diverted by Hamas. The country also accused the U.N. of failing to act in a timely fashion, saying 700 truckloads of aid were idling inside Gaza.
"Responsibility for food distribution to the population in Gaza lies with the UN and international aid organizations," the Israeli military said in a July 26 statement. "Therefore, the UN and international organizations are expected to improve the effectiveness of aid distribution and to ensure that the aid does not reach Hamas."
An internal U.S. government analysis found no evidence of systematic theft by Hamas of U.S.-funded humanitarian supplies, Reuters reported last week.
Where are ceasefire talks?
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on July 25 to abandon ceasefire negotiations, saying it was clear Hamas did not want a deal.
"I think they want to die," Trump said of the militants. "And it's very bad. And it got to be to a point where you're going to have to finish the job."
Humanitarian groups have urged Israel to reach a deal, saying the only real solution to the suffering in Gaza is a complete end to the fighting.
"An agreed 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," the U.N. World Food Program said in their statement.
Contributing: Reuters
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The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Scale of Gaza hunger is seen from space as satellite pics show crowd surround aid trucks after UN declares famine
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Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Extraordinary satellite images show huge crowds descending on aid trucks as UN claims Gaza is ‘on the brink of full-scale famine' amid mounting blame game
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Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Basal said the strikes were carried out overnight and into the morning and 'targeted a number of citizens' homes' in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
What will it take to stave off famine in Gaza?
GENEVA, July 29 (Reuters) - A global hunger monitor said on Tuesday that a famine scenario was unfolding in the Gaza Strip, with malnutrition soaring, children under five dying of hunger-related causes and humanitarian access severely restricted. We examine what needs to be done to reverse the crisis. Israel said on Sunday it would halt military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and designate secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says 500-600 trucks a day are needed to prevent more of the 2.1 million population people starving. Since the announcement, over 100 truckloads of aid have been transported into Gaza, according to the U.N. The World Food Program said that only half of the 100 trucks it hoped to get in daily had been allowed in, and it had not been able to reopen the lifeline bakeries and community kitchens that closed in May due to shortages. More than 20,000 children were admitted to hospital with severe malnutrition between April and mid-July, according to the hunger monitor, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The U.N. children's charity UNICEF is focusing on urgent delivery of Ready-To-Use-Therapeutic-Foods, including dense peanut paste and high-energy biscuits, which the acutely malnourished require before they can start eating normal food. Babies under six months need a therapeutic formula that works similarly to the paste. UNICEF says these special foods are set to run out by mid-August. Malnourished children often suffer complications that require antibiotics - something else that the WHO says is running out. Acutely malnourished children can usually recover within 8-10 weeks, experts say. For children under 2, who may have been malnourished during critical brain development, full recovery is harder to achieve. In all cases, long-term access to nutritious foods such as fruit, vegetables and meat is essential for full recovery, requiring commercial supplies to resume, UNICEF says. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private U.S.- and Israeli-backed group, said it has distributed over 96 million meals since late May, in boxes of staples such as rice, flour, pasta, tuna, beans, biscuits and cooking oil. However, most of these need to be cooked, and the IPC report noted that clean water and fuel are largely unavailable in Gaza. Israel says it will allow airdrops of food, and Jordan and the United Arab Emirates parachuted 25 tons into Gaza on Sunday. Yet it is widely acknowledged that the only effective way to meet Gaza's needs is by truck. Airdrops are many times more expensive and UNICEF notes they feed the first to arrive, not those in most need. Ways must be found to get aid safely to the right recipients. U.N. data gathered between May 19, when Israel lifted its blockade, and July 25 shows that only about one in eight of the 2,010 truckloads of relief collected from crossing points under the U.N.-led aid operation reached its destination. The rest were looted, "either peacefully by hungry people or forcefully by armed actors during transit". An internal U.S. government analysis found no evidence of systematic theft by the Palestinian militant group Hamas of U.S.-funded humanitarian supplies, and the U.N. refuses to cooperate with GHF, Israel's chosen aid provider. But deliveries by the GHF have, if anything, been more dangerous. The U.N. estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food supplies, most of them near the militarised distribution sites of the GHF, which employs a U.S. logistics firm run by a former CIA officer and armed U.S. veterans. GHF denies that there have been deadly incidents at its sites, and says the deadliest have been near other aid convoys. The Israeli military has acknowledged that civilians have been harmed by its gunfire near distribution centres, and says its forces have now received better instructions.
