Israeli military announces ‘tactical pause’ in attempt to increase flow of aid into hard-hit Gaza

JERUSALEM — The Israeli army announced on Sunday a “tactical pause” in its offensive in the southern Gaza Strip to allow deliveries of greater quantities of humanitarian aid.

The military said the pause would begin in the Rafah area at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT, 1 a.m. Eastern) and would remain in effect until 7 p.m. (1600 GMT, noon Eastern). He said the breaks would occur daily until further notice.

The pause is intended to allow aid trucks to reach the nearby Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, the main entry point for incoming aid, and travel safely to the Salah a-Din highway, a main highway in north to south, to deliver supplies to other parts of Gaza, the military said. He said the pause was being coordinated with the UN and international aid agencies.

The crossing has been bottlenecked since Israeli ground troops entered Rafah in early May.

Israel’s eight-month military offensive against the Hamas militant group has plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis, with the UN reporting widespread hunger and hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine. The international community has urged Israel to do more to ease the crisis.

From May 6 to June 6, the UN received an average of 68 trucks of aid a day, according to figures from the UN humanitarian office, known as OCHA. That was down from 168 trucks a day in April and far below the 500 trucks a day aid groups say are needed.

The flow of aid into southern Gaza slowed just as humanitarian need grew. More than a million Palestinians, many of whom had already been displaced, He fled Rafah after the invasion., agglomerating in other parts of southern and central Gaza. Most now languish in ramshackle tent camps, using trenches as latrines and with open sewage in the streets.

COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees aid distribution in Gaza, says there are no restrictions on trucks entering. It says more than 8,600 trucks of all types, both aid and commercial, entered Gaza from all crossings between May 2 and June 13, an average of 201 per day. But much of that aid has accumulated at crossings and has not reached its final destination.

A COGAT spokesman, Shimon Freedman, said it was the UN’s fault that its shipments were piling up on the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom. He said agencies have “fundamental logistical problems that they haven’t solved,” especially a lack of trucks.

The UN denies such accusations. he says Fights between Israel and Hamas. often makes it too dangerous for UN trucks inside Gaza to travel to Kerem Shalom, which is right next to Israel’s border.

It also says the pace of deliveries has slowed because the Israeli military must authorize drivers to travel to the location, a system Israel says was designed for driver safety. Due to the lack of security, in some cases aid trucks have also been looted by crowds while traveling on Gaza roads.

The new agreement aims to reduce the need to coordinate deliveries by providing an uninterrupted 11-hour period each day for trucks to enter and exit the crossing.

It was not immediately clear whether the military would provide security to protect the aid trucks as they proceed along the highway.