Israel military announces ‘tactical pause’ in three areas of Gaza
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis.
The Israeli military says it will begin a “tactical pause” in fighting in three areas of Gaza as part of steps to address a worsening humanitarian situation.
The military said it would halt activity in Muwasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City from 10am to 8pm local time every day until further notice, beginning on Sunday.
The military said it was not operating in those areas but there had been fighting and strikes in each in recent weeks. In a statement, the military said it would also designate secure routes to help aid agencies deliver food and other supplies to people across Gaza.
The announcement that the military would pause some fighting comes after months of experts’ warnings of famine amid Israeli restrictions on aid.
International criticism, including by close allies, has grown as many Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying to reach food distribution sites.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has also announced that “designated humanitarian corridors” are being established for UN convoys to “refute the false claim on intentional starvation”.
We’ll bring you updates on this story and other Middle East news throughout the day.
Key events
Here is another picture of an airdrop that has just been sent over the newswires:
Here is a photo of humanitarian aid being airdropped into Gaza (the UAE and Jordan have begun a fresh round of air drops over the territory):
World Food Programme says it hopes Israeli pause in parts of Gaza Strip will allow food to enter region
The World Food Programme hopes that an Israeli humanitarian pause in designated areas of the Gaza Strip will allow for a surge in urgently needed food aid to the region, it said on Sunday.
The United Nations agency has enough food in or on its way to the region to feed the entire Gaza population of 2.1 million people for almost three months, it said in a post on X.
Turkish president welcomes move by French president to recognise Palestinian statehood
Turkey’s president on Sunday welcomed a move by his French counterpart to recognise Palestinian statehood, in a phone call between the two leaders, the Turkish presidency said.
“During a telephone conversation, president Erdoğan congratulated French president Macron on his decision to recognise Palestine as a state,” it said in a statement.
“A two-state solution is essential for a durable peace in the region,” Erdoğan said.
The Egyptian Red Crescent said it was sending on Sunday more than 100 trucks carrying over 1,200 metric tons of food aid to southern Gaza through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.
“It is worth noting that the Egyptian Red Crescent has been present on the border since the beginning of the crisis, as the Rafah crossing has not been completely closed on the Egyptian side. It has continued its preparedness and efforts to facilitate the entry of aid, with the help of 35,000 volunteers from the association,” the Egyptian Red Crescent wrote in a Facebook post.
Why is the ICJ delaying the Gaza genocide verdict?
South Africa went to the international court of justice (ICJ) in December 2023 to accuse Israel of genocide over its conduct during its war in Gaza.
Israel rejects South Africa’s claim and accuses it of providing political cover for Hamas.
The proceedings are ongoing and my colleague Julien Borger explains in this analysis piece why it is likely for the world’s top court to take years to reach a conclusion despite the horrors of the Israeli assault being in plain view. Here is an extract:
Israel was originally due to present its rebuttal to the genocide charge brought by South Africa on Monday, but the court has granted its lawyers a six-month extension. The panel of 17 judges accepted Israel’s argument that it needed more than the nine months allotted to prepare its case, because they claimed “evidentiary issues” in South Africa’s presentation meant “the scope of the case remained unclear”.
The South African legal team countered that none of the arguments given by Israeli lawyers were a legitimate reason for delay, and dragging out the case was unjustifiable in view of the humanitarian emergency in Gaza. But the court sided with Israel, which now has until next January to present its case.
“I think [the ICJ is] being really cautious here because of the political climate,” said Juliette McIntyre, a senior lecturer in law at the University of South Australia. “They don’t want to be accused of just running roughshod over Israel’s procedural rights and finding that it’s committed genocide without fully giving them an opportunity to respond.”
Gaza health ministry says six more people have died of malnutrition, bringing total to 133
In an update posted to Telegram this morning, Gaza’s health ministry said hospitals in the Strip recorded six new deaths in the past 24 hours due to famine and malnutrition, including two children “exhausted by hunger”.
This brings the total number of deaths due to malnutrition to 133, including 87 children, since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, which is increasingly being described as a genocide against the territory’s civilian population.
The UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, has written this in a post on X:
Welcome announcement of humanitarian pauses in Gaza to allow our aid through.
In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window.
As a reminder, the Israeli military said earlier that it had dropped seven packages of aid into Gaza and has said it will allow some aid to enter the Strip via “humanitarian corridors”. Countries in the region – including UAE, Jordan and Egypt – are reportedly in the process of delivering aid to the territory.
According to the BBC, which is quoting a UAE official, another aid air drop will take place between 12:00 local time (10:00 BST) and 14:00 local time (12:00 BST) in northern Gaza.
At least 13 Palestinians, including two children, have been killed this morning after Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza, medical sources have told Wafa, the Palestinian news agency.
Wafa reports that six civilians were killed near an aid distribution centre to the southwest of Khan Younis, six more Palestinians were killed near an aid distribution center on the outskirts of Rafah and one other person was killed in a similar attack in central Gaza. We have not yet been able to indepdnently verifiy this information.
‘My life’s wish is to eat a loaf of bread,’ Palestinian woman says amid widespread starvation
In the Tel al-Hawa district of Gaza City, 30-year-old Suad Ishtaywi said she hoped aid trucks would now be able to reach her family’s tent encampment.
“My life’s wish has become to eat a loaf of bread and to be able to provide bread for my children to eat,” she told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.
Ishtaywi says her husband comes back daily from fruitless trips to aid distribution points.
Also in Gaza City, 44-year-old Mohammed al-Daduh, said: “We hope the aid comes in today, because hunger is killing us day by day. Egypt said it would send aid, but we don’t know if Israel will allow it in.”
Jordan’s security agency has posted a video on X apparently showing some aid-loaded trucks moving along a road towards Gaza.
“Happening now, huge Jordanian relief convoys are moving towards Gaza,” the public security directorate wrote on X.
As we mentioned in an earlier post, Egyptian state-linked media reported this morning that aid trucks had begun entering the Gaza Strip as Israel announced a “tactical pause” in parts of the devastated territory to allow deliveries.
The pause – which could last hours, or days – comes amid mounting international pressure over the starvation and widespread malnutrition in Gaza caused by the restriction of aid into the territory by Israel.
There was also growing condemnation of the number of desperate Palestinian people being killed near aid distribution points while waiting to collect the tiny amount of food that has been allowed into Gaza.
The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May – in effect sidelining the existing UN-led system.
More than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are living through a catastrophic humanitarian crisis and the entire population is at risk of famine, according to food security experts.
Israel imposed a total aid blockade for 11 weeks starting in March (ostensibly to put pressure on Hamas to release hostages), and the trickle of food, fuel and medical supplies allowed in since May has not relieved extreme hunger.
Israel has been widely accused of using food as a political weapon and of flagrantly breaking international law by collectively punishing the civilian population by its aid blockade.
Egyptian aid trucks entering Gaza, state-linked media says
Egyptian state-linked media on Sunday reported that aid trucks had begun entering the Gaza Strip as Israel announced a “tactical pause” in parts of the devastated territory to allow deliveries.
“Egyptian aid trucks begin to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing,” Al-Qahera News posted on X, alongside footage of aid convoys moving in the border area.
Will Israel’s shift on aid be enough to ease hunger?
In a statement, the Israeli army said it coordinated its decisions with the UN and international organisations to “increase the scale of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip”.
There was no immediate official response from the UN or non-governmental aid agencies operating in Gaza.
Humanitarian chiefs are deeply sceptical that air drops can deliver enough food safely to tackle the deepening hunger crisis facing Gaza’s more than two million inhabitants.
But the British prime minister Keir Starmer backed the idea, vowing to work with Jordan to restart air drops. The United Arab Emirates said it would resume air drops “immediately”.
A number of Western and Arab governments carried out air drops in Gaza in 2024, when aid deliveries by land also faced Israeli restrictions, but many in the humanitarian community consider them ineffective.
“Air drops will not reverse the deepening starvation,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. “They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians.”
Israel’s military insists it does not limit the number of trucks going into Gaza, and alleges that UN agencies and relief groups are not collecting aid once it is inside the territory.
But humanitarian organisations accuse the army of imposing excessive restrictions, while tightly controlling road access within Gaza.
Australian prime minister accuses Israel of ‘clearly’ breaching international law
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese says, has accused Israel of a breach of international law in blocking aid into Gaza, saying “you can’t hold innocent people responsible” for the actions of Hamas, and warning that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is “losing support” internationally.
“Quite clearly it is a breach of international law to stop food being delivered which was a decision that Israel made in March,” Albanese told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.
But Albanese says Australia has no plans to imminently recognise a Palestinian state, Anthony Albanese says, cautioning further steps must be met for a two-state solution despite growing pressure inside his Labor party for the government to follow through on its long-held commitment.
Read the full story:
Israel military says it carried out an aid airdrop in Gaza
The Israeli military also said Sunday that it had carried out aid airdrops into Gaza, which included packages of aid with flour, sugar and canned food.
Food experts have warned for months of the risk of famine in Gaza, where Israel has restricted aid because it says Hamas siphons off goods to help bolster its rule.
Images emerging from Gaza in recent days of emaciated children have fanned global criticism of Israel, including by close allies, who have called for an end to the war and the humanitarian catastrophe it has spawned.
On Telegram, the Israeli military announced it “carried out an airdrop of humanitarian aid as part of the ongoing efforts to allow and facilitate the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip”.
The military said these humanitarian steps were being allowed alongside its offensive against Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza.
Israel has faced growing international condemnation over the deepening hunger crisis in Gaza, after imposing a total blockade on Gaza on 2 March. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume.
The decision to loosen the flow of aid came as the Palestinian civil defence agency said more than 50 more Palestinians had been killed in Israeli strikes and shootings, some as they waited near aid distribution centres.
Israel intercepts boat carrying activists trying to deliver aid to Gaza
A boat carrying activists and journalists has been intercepted by Israeli troops while attempting to transport aid to Gaza on Saturday, with a pro-Palestinian group claiming the crew have been subjected to “unlawful” detention.
The Handala, led by the activist group the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was roughly 50km from the Egyptian coast and 100km west of Gaza when intercepted, an online tracking tool set up to plot the ship’s course showed.
In a post on X, the Israeli foreign ministry said its navy had stopped the boat from “illegally entering the maritime zone of the coast of Gaza”.
“The vessel is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. All passengers are safe,” the post read. “Unauthorized attempts to breach the blockade are dangerous, unlawful, and undermine ongoing humanitarian efforts.”
Two Australians including journalist Tania “Tan” Safi and human rights activist Robert Martin were among 21 activists on board the ship, the group said in a statement, as well as two Al Jazeera reporters and French politicians Emma Fourreau and Gabrielle Cathala.
Read more:
Israel military announces ‘tactical pause’ in three areas of Gaza
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis.
The Israeli military says it will begin a “tactical pause” in fighting in three areas of Gaza as part of steps to address a worsening humanitarian situation.
The military said it would halt activity in Muwasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City from 10am to 8pm local time every day until further notice, beginning on Sunday.
The military said it was not operating in those areas but there had been fighting and strikes in each in recent weeks. In a statement, the military said it would also designate secure routes to help aid agencies deliver food and other supplies to people across Gaza.
The announcement that the military would pause some fighting comes after months of experts’ warnings of famine amid Israeli restrictions on aid.
International criticism, including by close allies, has grown as many Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying to reach food distribution sites.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has also announced that “designated humanitarian corridors” are being established for UN convoys to “refute the false claim on intentional starvation”.
We’ll bring you updates on this story and other Middle East news throughout the day.
