JERUSALEM – An Israeli official announced on Saturday that Israel plans to reduce or stop humanitarian aid in parts of northern Gaza as it intensifies its campaign against Hamas.
The official, preferring to remain anonymous due to lack of authorization to speak to the media, informed The Associated Press that Israel intends to cease airdrops over Gaza City in the next few days and decrease the influx of aid trucks to the northern region as it aims to relocate hundreds of thousands of residents southward.
On Friday, Israel declared Gaza City a combat zone, identifying it as a Hamas bastion and asserting that a network of tunnels persists there despite numerous prior major operations over nearly two years of conflict.
This policy change comes weeks after Israel’s initial announcement to intensify its operations in the city, which is home to hundreds of thousands enduring severe shortages. Recently, the military has increased strikes on the city’s perimeter. AP video captured multiple large explosions around Gaza on Friday night.
The military’s decision to resume operations coincides with the Gaza death toll exceeding 63,000. On Saturday, Israeli gunfire claimed four lives among those seeking aid in central Gaza, as reported by officials at Awda hospital, where the bodies were taken.
It remains uncertain when the aid reduction and airdrop halt will officially commence. As of Saturday, airdrops had been paused for several days, diverging from the nearly daily deliveries observed over recent weeks.
Israel’s army didn’t respond to a request for comment about the airdrops or how it would provide aid to Palestinians as Israel ramped up its offensive.
On Friday, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee urged Palestinians to flee south, calling evacuation “inevitable.”
Aid groups warn that a largescale evacuation of Gaza City would exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis.
Earlier this month the leading authority on food crises said that Gaza City was in famine and that half a million people across the strip were facing catastrophic levels of hunger. On Saturday the health ministry in Gaza said 10 people died as a result of starvation and malnutrition over the past 24 hours, among them three children.
“Such an evacuation would trigger a massive population movement that no area in the Gaza Strip can absorb, given the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the extreme shortages of food, water, shelter and medical care,” said Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, in a statement Saturday.
It’s impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could be done in a safe and dignified way, she said.
Hundreds of residents have begun leaving Gaza City, piling their few remaining possessions onto pickup trucks or donkey carts. Many have been forced to leave their homes more than once.
The U.N. said Thursday that 23,000 people had evacuated this past week, but many in Gaza City say there is nowhere safe to go. Others who have been displaced south worry that the area can’t support an influx of people.
“There is no food and even water is not available. When it is available, it is not safe to drink,” said Amer Zayed as he waited for food from a charity kitchen in the southern city of Deir Al-Balah.
“What exacerbates the situation is the displacement of residents … The suffering gets worse when there are more displaced people,” he said.
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Shurafa reported from Deir-al-Balah, Gaza Strip.
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