After a nearly three-month blockade and warnings by global experts of impeding famine, Israel says it will allow a limited amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza even as it launches “extensive” new ground operations there.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a “starvation crisis” in Gaza would jeopardize the new offensive — the largest since — and that a “basic” amount of food would be allowed in.
Israel in early March cut off all food, medicine and other supplies to the territory of over 2 million people to pressure Hamas over ceasefire terms. Over the weekend, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 103 people, including dozens of children, hospitals and medics said.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the offensive — dubbed Operation Gideon Chariots — was being led with “great force.” Netanyahu had vowed to escalate pressure with the aim of destroying the militant Hamas group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades.
The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
Here’s the latest:
The Israeli military orders the evacuation for residents of Gaza’s second-largest city
The military ordered the evacuation of residents from Khan Younis, the enclave’s second-largest city, and nearby towns, saying the entire area “will be considered a dangerous combat zone.”
Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, posted the order on his social media accounts.
A Palestinian militant group says its leader was killed in an Israeli raid in Gaza
The armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, a Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip, says Israeli special forces tried to capture one of its leaders on Monday but that he was killed in a shootout.
The group says that Ahmed Sarhan fought back when the troops tried to capture him. His wife and child were reportedly detained.
— By Samy Magdy in Cairo;
An AP photographer sees aid trucks at a Gaza crossing
An Associated Press photographer has seen at least three trucks loaded with humanitarian aid on the Israeli side of a crossing with Gaza. The trucks were parked just outside the Kerem Shalom crossing.
— By Ohad Zwigenberg in Kerem Shalom, Israel;
A UN official says aid trucks are to enter Gaza on Monday
A U.N. official says 20 aid trucks carrying mostly food are expected to go into the Gaza Strip on Monday.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli authorities. The official was not authorized to brief reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity.
— By Samy Magdy in Cairo;
A US-backed distribution group welcomes Israel announcement on Gaza aid resumption
A U.S.-backed group expected to run aid distribution in Gaza said Israel’s announcement was an “important first step.”
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has said its four aid distribution sites would be up and running before the end of the month. It was not clear when the aid would resume.
The group’s head Jake Wood called late on Sunday on international aid groups to join in the new distribution mechanism.
But international aid groups say the mechanism is not practical and won’t reach the most vulnerable Palestinians. They also say they won’t participate because it doesn’t align with their humanitarian principles.
Israel says a new aid distribution approach is necessary because it accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid to support its military activities, a claim aid groups dispute.
Palestinians say Israeli forces disguised as civilians killed a man in a Gaza raid
Palestinians in Gaza say Israeli forces disguised as civilians and under heavy air cover shot and killed a man and detained his wife and child in a raid Monday on a house in the enclave’s south.
The Israeli forces drove a civilian vehicle and raided the home in the city of Khan Younis as airstrikes pounded the surrounding area, residents said.
“We thought that all houses would be bombed,” said Mohammed Sarhan, a relative of the man killed and a neighbor, who said the strikes lasted 10 minutes.
Mahmoud Safi, another neighbor, said the Israeli forces carried what appeared to be luggage and blankets on the top of their white vehicle.
The killed man was identified as Ahmed Sarhan. The reason he was targeted was not immediately known.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
Freed Israeli hostage pleads with lawmakers to end the war in Gaza
Arbel Yehoud, who was freed after 482 days in captivity in a ceasefire earlier this year, told lawmakers at a parliamentary committee on Monday that they will have blood on their hands “if you do not stop the war.”
Yehoud’s partner, Ariel Cunio, is still held in Gaza, along with 57 other hostages, 23 of whom are believed to be alive.
She said she was terrified by the sounds of missiles and bombs while she was held captive. She said she would be beaten if her captors’ relatives were harmed in Israeli strikes and held in isolation with food “unfit for human consumption and with a level of hygiene like in concentration camps of the Holocaust.”
“As someone who was there, I know that only through negotiations is (returning the hostages) possible,” she said.
