JERUSALEM — Israel is preparing to halt or slow humanitarian aid to parts of northern Gaza as it broadens its military campaign against Hamas, a source revealed on Saturday, following the designation of Gaza City as a combat zone the previous day.
This move is anticipated to draw further disapproval towards the Israeli government, as growing frustration is observed both domestically and internationally regarding the severe conditions facing Palestinians and hostages who remain in Gaza after nearly 23 months of conflict.
The source, who requested anonymity due to restrictions on public communications, informed The Associated Press that Israel plans to cease airdrops over Gaza City soon and reduce the aid truck deliveries, with the intention to relocate hundreds of thousands of residents to the south.
The cessation of daytime fighting halts for aid deliveries took place on Friday, as Israel identified Gaza City as a stronghold for Hamas and claimed a tunnel network was still operational. According to the United Nations and its partners, these pauses, alongside the airdrops and other recent actions, have been insufficient compared to the 600 daily aid trucks required in Gaza.
“We left because the area became unlivable,” stated Fadi Al-Daour, who was displaced from Gaza City, while vehicles packed with people and belongings moved through a devastated landscape. “No one is searching, and there are no journalists to film. There is nothing.”
Remains of another hostage are identified
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the remains discovered in Gaza, which Israel announced on Friday, belonged to Idan Shtivi. Shtivi had been abducted from the Nova music festival during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which ignited the current conflict.
Forty-eight hostages now remain in Gaza of the over 250 seized. Israel has believed 20 are still alive.
Their loved ones fear the expanding military offensive will put them in even more danger, and they rallied again Saturday to demand a ceasefire deal to bring everyone home.
“Netanyahu, if another living hostage comes back in a bag, it will not only be the hostages and their families who pay the price. You will bear responsibility for premeditated murder,” Zahiro Shahar Mor, nephew of hostage Avraham Munder, said in Tel Aviv.
A ‘massive population movement’ coming
In recent days, Israel’s military has increased strikes on the outskirts of Gaza City, where famine was recently documented and declared by global food security experts.
By Saturday there had been no airdrops for several days across Gaza, a break from almost daily ones. Israel’s army didn’t respond to a request for comment or say how it would provide aid to Palestinians during another major shift in Gaza’s population of over 2 million people.
“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,” Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement.
It’s impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City can be done in a safe and dignified way, she said.
Killed while seeking food
AP video footage showed several large explosions across Gaza overnight. Israel’s military Saturday evening said it had struck a key Hamas member in the area of Gaza City, with no details.
An Israeli strike on a bakery in Gaza City’s Nasr neighborhood killed 12 people including six women and three children, the Shifa Hospital director told the AP, and a strike on the Rimal neighborhood killed seven.
Hamas in a statement called the strike on a residential building in Rimal a “brutal escalation against civilians.”
Israeli gunfire killed four people trying to get aid in central Gaza, according to health officials at Al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said another 10 people died as a result of starvation and malnutrition over the past 24 hours, including three children. It said at least 332 Palestinians have died from malnutrition-related causes during the war, including 124 children.
At least 63,371 Palestinians have died in Gaza during the war, said the ministry, which does not say how many are fighters or civilians but says around half have been women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
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Shurafa reported from Deir-al-Balah, Gaza Strip.
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