After carrying out its first airdrop of aid into Gaza last night, Israel began this Sunday"tactical pauses in military action to increase the scale of humanitarian aid entering the Strip." This measure, which will be daily"until further notice" and decided within the framework of a new policy by the Israeli Cabinet in response to the deteriorating crisis in the devastated Palestinian enclave, was announced by the army in a statement in which it affirms that the decision was taken in coordination with the UN and international organizations.

According to the Jordanian army, two Jordanian planes and one Emirati plane dropped 25 tons of humanitarian aid on the Strip on Sunday."The Jordanian armed forces carried out three airdrops of humanitarian aid on Sunday over the Gaza Strip, one of them in collaboration with the United Arab Emirates," the army said in a statement, adding that 25 tons of aid were dropped.

In addition, some 35 trucks entered the northern Gaza Strip this Sunday with food from the UN World Food Programme (WFP), five days after Israel had been holding them back, Efe witnessed at the scene.

According to Efe, the first group of ten trucks arrived around 6:40 a.m. local time (3:40 a.m. GMT). A second group of 10 arrived around 8:30 a.m. Later, a third group of ten arrived, and finally, a group of five, whose contents were also emptied by the hungry population.

A truck driver explained to Efe that Israel grants access permits to between 10 and 20 trucks each day, ultimately allowing the entry of about seven. Therefore, the 35 would correspond to the last five days, during which no trucks crossed the Zikim border crossing.

International pressure

The 10-hour humanitarian pauses (10:00-20:00) are taking place in three areas where there is no ground military activity: Al-Mawasi (south), Deir al-Balah (center) and Gaza City (north).

The Israeli military also announced the establishment of"permanently designated safe routes from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. to allow safe passage for United Nations convoys and humanitarian aid organizations delivering and distributing food and medicine to the population throughout the Gaza Strip."

Under an unprecedented wave of criticism, condemnation and pressure over the dramatic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, where local authorities, the UN and international agencies have warned of the spread of hunger, the Israeli Cabinet is taking these measures, which were already announced last night by the Foreign Ministry.

This Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to troops:"The UN is making excuses and lying about the State of Israel. It says, 'They don't allow humanitarian supplies in.' They are. There are protected convoys. There have always been, but today it is official. There will be no more excuses. We will continue fighting, we will continue acting until we achieve all our war objectives, until complete victory."

The UN denounced that it had not received guarantees of safe routes or logistical facilities to carry out humanitarian distribution effectively and safely in areas still under combat and attack. It noted that the"extremely serious" situation in the Palestinian enclave is due to the blockade of humanitarian aid from March, when the truce ended, until May, when Israel resumed the entry of humanitarian aid, first through the new mechanism managed with the United States and then through the traditional distribution system run by the UN and agencies.

According to the Hamas-controlled Gazan Ministry of Health, 133 people, including 87 children, have died from malnutrition since the start of the Israeli offensive in response to the jihadist attack on October 7, 2023, in the south of the country. Dozens of them have died in recent weeks, according to Gaza, warning of"the worst humanitarian crisis since the start of the war." After accusing Israel of "using famine as a systematic and deliberate policy," Islamist leader Mahmoud Marwadi reacted to the new Israeli measures as follows: "The occupation is now trying to repair its image, not save Palestinian civilian lives."

"Israel rejects the false accusations of famine propaganda initiated by Hamas, which manipulates images of terminally ill children. This is shameful," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

The return of the central role of the UN, humanitarian truces in various areas, parachute food shipments (criticized by several NGOs as"costly and dangerous"), and security corridors represent a drastic change in Israel's policy regarding aid to the Gaza Strip. This is not only the result of international pressure, especially from the US under the impact of the images of the Palestinian enclave that spread around the world, and an attempt to halt the humanitarian deterioration, but also confirmation of the failure of the strategy approved by Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet four months ago with the end of the ceasefire.

Following the daily entry of 600 trucks of humanitarian aid during the ceasefire in effect since January 19, during which Hamas handed over more than 30 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, Israel announced the blockade in March. It claimed that this was to pressure Hamas to hand over the hostages held captive, accept the ceasefire, and not use aid as a means of financing itself. Today, it is Israel that is under internal and, above all, external pressure, even though it accuses Hamas and criticizes the role of the UN.

Deterioration of the humanitarian crisis

Following the deterioration of the humanitarian crisis, in May the cabinet activated, albeit with great difficulty, two distribution channels that proved to be insufficient in an enclave of more than two million inhabitants: the new mechanism managed with the US by the company Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) with distribution centers in the south of Gaza and the traditional UN one in the north.

The decision on"tactical pauses" and "safe corridors" for humanitarian aid has been heavily criticized by the far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who is opposed to a truce agreement even if it means the return of hostages, and by some of their families who denounce that Netanyahu makes concessions without receiving anything in return while the hostages"continue to rot in the tunnels in the Gaza Strip." This criticism has been multiplied by the coincidence of the announcement of the measures on Sunday with the death of three Israeli soldiers in the last few hours.

"It is a grave mistake to give food to Hamas terrorists without returning our hostages. It gives them strength and represents a surrender to their false hunger campaign. Instead of taking advantage of Donald Trump's ultimatum (to Hamas), we continue to give them food," Ben Gvir said, referring to the US president's statements on Friday accusing Hamas of not wanting an agreement after its latest response to the truce proposal.