Security officials dealing with the issue have been ordered to significantly increase the pace of bringing aid into the Gaza Strip, due to"great pressure" on the government from international criticism and growing reports of "starvation" of Gazans. The message:"Speed up the bringing in of aid, think less about the precautions designed to prevent food from reaching Hamas."

Nadav Eyal

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Security sources told Ynet this afternoon (Thursday) that the political level has ordered the security establishment to "bring in and accelerate the entry of aid into Gaza even more, and to pay less attention to precautionary measures." What they mean by precautionary measures is that they are designed to prevent food from reaching Hamas, meaning they are calling for increased aid even if it means some of it will fall into the hands of the terrorist organization.

Additional information on the subject:•

There are hungry children in Gaza. We need to admit this - and immediately change the distribution of aid | Ron Ben Yishai

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The world accuses of killing and starvation - and Israel again fails to respond: The failure of propaganda, and the call to end the war

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More than 20 countries call for an end to the war, and attack:"Israel is preventing aid"

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In Gaza, they hope for an agreement:"We are suffering from hunger and killing. We have nothing left, not even hope"

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Hungry children queue for food distribution in Gaza City, yesterday (Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa)

Senior officials involved in the issue explained the order, claiming that there is"great pressure" on the government from reports around the world about starvation in the Gaza Strip. Yesterday alone, about 150 food trucks were coordinated and distributed from the Kerem Shalom crossing - a significant increase compared to previous days. According to UN reports to Israel, some of the trucks managed to make their way for the first time in months and unload the equipment in areas of actual population concentration.

So far, it should be noted, that humanitarian aid has been looted in the early stages, the food stolen and sold later. The coordinator of operations in the territories continues to ensure that no aid financed by elements close to Hamas, nor in coordination with the terrorist organization, enters.

In recent days, we will recall that international pressure on Israel has been increasing significantly following the sightings of hungry children in the Gaza Strip, sightings that are broadcast and covered extensively by the international media, and evidence of the increasing pressure has been

The message from 25 countries

, including countries generally friendly to Israel, such as Britain, in which they demanded that it end the war and warned that the Israeli aid model, through

The American GHF Foundation

, dangerous and brings the suffering of the Gazans to"new depths."

The UN claims that in fact most of the Gaza population is now at risk of starvation, or in the words of the organization's Secretary-General Antonio Guterres -"hunger is knocking on every door in Gaza." The Gaza Health Ministry, which is under Hamas control but whose statements are also quoted prominently in the international media, claims that 70,000 children in Gaza are already showing signs of malnutrition, and today it claimed that so far - since the beginning of the war - 113 people have died of hunger, including two in the last 24 hours.

The IDF claimed on Tuesday that according to all the signs, monitoring and daily checks conducted by the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories unit in the Gaza Strip, there is no famine in the Gaza Strip.

- But from Gaza comes a wealth of evidence of a real crisis, and it is clear that the world does not accept the Israeli denials at all."We are trying to survive on an hourly basis, not even daily," a Palestinian aid worker named Tahani Shahada was quoted as saying on the BBC."Even simple things like cooking or showering have become luxuries," she said, noting that now she is often forced to work without eating."I just keep going because I have to. I have a baby. He is eight months old. He doesn't know what fruit tastes like."

International aid organizations accuse Israel of largely halting the previous aid system that was in place throughout most of the war, a system in which up to hundreds of aid trucks were brought into the Strip every day and hundreds of distribution sites operated by the UN. Since a large portion of the aid was looted by militants and also fell into the hands of Hamas, Israel, together with the United States, promoted the establishment of the American GHF Foundation, which currently operates only five sites. These sites, four of which are in the south of the Strip (in the area between Rafah and Khan Yunis) and one of which is in its center (south of the Netzarim axis), are remotely secured by IDF soldiers - who, according to international reports,

Even according to the testimonies of the soldiers themselves

, sometimes firing at the crowds gathered at the compounds - firing that reportedly resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Gazans.

Palestinians carrying aid bags in Beit Lahia, earlier this week (Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas)

Israel constantly emphasizes the fact that Hamas is trying to harm the conduct of these sites in order to disrupt the activities of the GHF Foundation, activities that threaten its hold on power, and only this morning did the IDF report that

Yesterday, a rocket launch carried out by the terrorist organization was detected at a distribution complex in Rafah.

The rocket fell, according to the IDF, 250 meters from the compound:"Despite the launch, the distribution compound in the Morag area was opened today and tens of thousands of weekly food packages were distributed to families. The launch adds to the attempts of the terrorist organizations, which are working cruelly and systematically to thwart the distribution compound plan through the American company and international aid organizations - while attempting to harm the distribution of humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip."

Our defense commentator Ron Ben Yishai published yesterday

An opinion column in which he emphasized that claims of mass starvation in Gaza should not be underestimated.

Among other things, he noted that the current crisis was expected in light of Israeli policy."What is upsetting is that the writing was on the wall," he wrote."The umbrella organization of aid organizations in Gaza published a statement in May of this year, just days before the humanitarian fund began operating, in which it wrote, among other things: 'Israeli officials attempted to disable the existing aid distribution system operated by the UN and its partner organizations, and to obtain our consent to deliver aid through Israeli logistics centers. According to the plan presented to us, large parts of Gaza, including the less mobile and more vulnerable and weak people, will remain without supplies - so it contradicts basic humanitarian principles. The plan is dangerous because it sends civilians to military zones to receive food rations, thereby endangering human lives.'"

World headlines about the famine in Gaza (Photo: AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Ben Yishai added: "This prediction, which was dismissed in Israel with a dismissive shrug, has come true in full. The waves of the 'human tsunami' rush daily toward the distribution centers because there are too few of them, or because they are far from the population centers. The UN, for comparison, has 400 aid and food distribution points throughout the Strip, in the heart of the population centers, and there the food, mainly infant formula (baby food substitutes), is distributed according to the records and certificates of those who hold it, and in more or less orderly lines of several dozen people in each line - and not a crowd that storms and tramples everything in its path.

"The idea designed to prevent aid looting by Hamas has allowed the terrorist organization to carry out a strategic awareness attack in the State of Israel, and it is consciously increasing the attacks on the fund's distribution points and the number of participants in them. Thus, following an unfortunate cabinet decision and with the approval of the Minister of Defense and the Prime Minister, Israel is being robbed twice - it is also accused of starving the residents of Gaza (and there is ample evidence that there is hunger), and IDF soldiers are also forced to shoot innocent people just so that the thousands moving towards them do not run them over, and so that Hamas cannot attach an explosive device to a tank under their protection. This is what happens when people who do not understand security make decisions, and people who are not professionals execute them with impunity."