ISRAELI forces bombard Gaza, killing 50 people since midnight, after the military orders Palestinians in the southern city of Khan Younis to flee ahead of an “unprecedented attack”.
The leaders of Canada, France and the UK threaten to take “concrete action” against Israel if it does not end its renewed offensive in Gaza, while 22 countries urge Israel to let aid into the besieged enclave.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military and the United Nations say a few UN trucks carrying humanitarian aid have been allowed into besieged Gaza, the first such delivery in nearly three months.
The UN on Monday called it a “welcome development” but “a drop in the ocean” when so much more aid is needed to address the humanitarian crisis. It is far short of the more than five hundred trucks per day that entered Gaza before the Hamas-led attack on Oct 7, 2023. Food security experts last week warned of famine.
Israel had kept Gaza under total blockade since March 2, pushing its Palestinian population into acute starvation. It announced it would allow limited supplies of food into Gaza as it launched an intensified ground offensive during an ongoing heavy bombardment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that pressure from allies was behind the move. His office had said Israel would open the way for some food to enter the Gaza Strip after a “recommendation” from the army the previous evening.
The announcement came shortly after the Israeli military launched “extensive ground operations” that are reported to have killed more than 150 people within 24 hours.
On Monday, Israel carried out at least 30 air strikes within an hour in the Khan Younis area and from dawn killed at least 84 Palestinians across Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
“Israel will allow a basic amount of food for the population to ensure that a hunger crisis does not develop in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement late on Sunday.
Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan, because Al Jazeera is banned from Israel, said the “real reason” some aid is being allowed into Gaza is so the Israelis can continue with their military operations.
“Make no mistake, the aid that’s going to be entering Gaza is nowhere near enough,” Salhut said.
After 11 weeks of total blockade, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said Israeli authorities cleared nine aid trucks to enter Gaza, where harsh restrictions on food and aid have sparked accusations that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,475 Palestinians and wounded 121,398, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Government Media Office updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.