JERUSALEM/GAZA/BERLIN - The Israeli military on Sunday announced a daily 10-hour humanitarian pause in its operations in parts of the Gaza Strip, along with the opening of secure routes for aid delivery, amid growing international pressure over the deepening hunger crisis there.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it would halt military activity in areas including Al-Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City, from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm local time (0700-1700 GMT) every day until further notice.
Designated secure routes will be open daily from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm (0300-2000 GMT) to ensure the safe passage of UN and humanitarian convoys, which deliver and distribute food and medicine, it added.
The military said the move followed "directives from the political echelon," in coordination with the United Nations and international aid organizations, to "increase the scale of humanitarian aid entering the Strip."
On Saturday night, the IDF said it resumed airdrops of food to the Strip to ease the humanitarian crisis there.
Since the latest round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, 127 people, including 85 children, have died from starvation and malnutrition, Gaza-based health authorities said Saturday.
The international condemnation of Israel is growing, with governments and aid groups alike denouncing its siege of Gaza as a humanitarian catastrophe.
The little aid allowed to reach supply facilities inside Gaza is "woefully inadequate" to curb starvation or sustain life-saving relief operations, UN humanitarians said on Thursday.
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Hamas said on Sunday that the entry of humanitarian aid is a fundamental human right for Palestinians and called for the full and permanent reopening of all land crossings into Gaza.
"The arrival of food, medicine, and humanitarian relief to Gaza is a natural right to confront the humanitarian catastrophe created by the occupation," Hamas said.
The remarks came as dozens of aid trucks began entering the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Sunday morning, and airdrops of aid resumed on Saturday evening.
Hamas, in the statement, criticized the limited airdrops as "symbolic and misleading," arguing they fail to address the root causes of the crisis.
Also on Sunday, the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said in a press statement that the coastal enclave requires at least 600 aid trucks per day to meet the basic needs of the population.
The essential supplies include baby formula, food items, medical aid, and fuel, according to the media office.
Meanwhile, the Palestine Red Crescent Society warned of a worsening humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave.
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According to its statement, more than two million residents of the coastal territory are suffering from catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Thousands of families have gone for days without a single meal, and hospitals are overwhelmed with cases of severe malnutrition, particularly among children, pregnant and nursing women, and the elderly.
In Berlin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz held a phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, expressing concern over the "catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza."
According to a statement from the German government, during the phone conversation, Merz urged an immediate ceasefire and called for urgently needed humanitarian aid to reach the starving civilians in Gaza swiftly, safely and at the required scale.
Germany will decide on its efforts to improve the situation in the coming days, in consultation with its E3 partners (France and Britain), as well as the United States and Arab nations, the statement said.
