Dozens die in Gaza despite Israeli-declared ‘humanitarian pause’, health officials say
100 Palestinians have died across the Gaza Strip within hours of Israel declaring daily ‘humanitarian pauses’ in operations to facilitate aid delivery, health officials said.
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On Saturday, Israel said it would establish humanitarian corridors to enable UN convoys to transport aid into Gaza, as well as airdrops.
In a statement, the country's military said it would allow "safe movement of deliveries of food and medicine" but that the military "emphasises that combat operations have not ceased".
The aid pauses see Israel’s military suspending operations every day between the hours of 10am and 8pm in parts of central and northern Gaza including Gaza City, Al-Mawasi and Deir el-Balah, as the IDF promised to open aid corridors from 6am to 11pm to allow food and medical supplies to enter the enclave.
The move comes amid international condemnation of the starvation crisis in Gaza, but Israel said it would continue military operations alongside the new humanitarian measures.
But within hours of the ‘humanitarian pause’ taking effect, air raids resumed, killing 63 Palestinians including a newborn who was delivered in a complex surgery after his mother, who was seven months pregnant, was killed in an airstrike according to Nasser hospital.
Bombs fell in multiple locations across Gaza, local health officials said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment about the latest strikes.
Aid agencies have welcomed the new aid measures, which also included allowing airdrops into Gaza, but said they were not enough to counter the rising hunger in the Palestinian territory.
Images of emaciated children have sparked outrage around the world, including from Israel's close allies.
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his Turnberry golf resort in South Ayrshire, Donald Trump said Israel has the responsibility to ensure a flow of aid into Gaza, but added that they are "hampered" by the remaining 20 hostages still being held by Hamas.
The US President on Sunday called the images of emaciated and malnourished children in Gaza "terrible".
Sitting next to Trump during the 70-minute press conference, Starmer stressed the need "to get the hostages out" before adding the situation on the ground in Gaza is "absolutely intolerable" and that humanitarian aid needs to get in "at speed and at volume".
He also said the British population is "revolted" by the scenes emerging from Gaza, and that the UK and the US can do "our very best to alleviate" the situation.
Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war.
In March, it cut off the entry of all goods, including fuel, food and medicine to pressure Hamas to free hostages.
Hamas had been freeing hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a ceasefire that lasted around two months, which Israel broke when it launched surprise airstrikes on Gaza on 18 March.
Israel partially lifted its strict aid restrictions in May but also pushed ahead on a new US-backed aid delivery system that has been wracked by chaos and violence, with daily reports of Palestinians being shot while queuing for aid.
Traditional aid providers have also encountered a similar breakdown in law and order surrounding their aid deliveries.
Most of Gaza's population now relies on aid, and accessing food has become a challenge that some Palestinians have risked their lives for.
The Awda hospital in central Gaza said it received the bodies of seven Palestinians who it said were killed on Monday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The hospital said 20 others were wounded close to the site. The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The pregnant woman and her child were killed along with 11 others after their house was struck in the Muwasi area, west of the southern city of Khan Younis, according to a hospital run by the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Another strike hit a two-storey house in the western Japanese neighbourhood of Khan Younis, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, said the Nasser Hospital, which received the casualties.
At least five others were killed in strikes elsewhere in Gaza, according to local hospitals.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on most of the strikes.
It said it was not aware of one strike in Gaza City during the pause that health officials said killed one person.
In its October 7 2023 attack, Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. It still holds 50, more than half of whom Israel believes to be dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 59,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
The ministry operates under the Hamas government, but is seen by the UN and other international organisations as the most reliable source of data on casualties.