JERUSALEM/CAIRO - Israel said on July 27 it would halt military operations each day for 10 hours in parts of Gaza and allow new aid corridors in the enclave, where images of hungry Palestinians have alarmed the world.

The military said it would cease activity in Al-Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City from 10am to 8pm local time until further notice, areas where it had not renewed ground operations since March, when it resumed its Gaza offensive.

Designated secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine will also be in place permanently from 6am until 11pm, the military said.

United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said aid workers would step up efforts to feed those who are starving during the pauses in the designated areas.

“Our teams on the ground will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window,” he said in a post on X.

Dozens of Gazans

in the past few weeks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. A total of 127 people, including 85 children, have died due to malnutrition since the start of the war, the ministry said.

A five-month-old baby, Zainab Abu Haleeb, died of severe acute malnutrition at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on July 26, health workers said.

“Three months inside the hospital and this is what I get in return, that she is dead,” said her mother, Ms Israa Abu Haleeb, standing next to the baby’s father as he held their daughter’s body, which was wrapped in a white shroud.

The Egyptian Red Crescent said it was sending on July 27 more than 100 trucks carrying over 1,200 tonnes of food aid to southern Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Hours earlier, Israel

in what it said was an effort to ease the humanitarian conditions in the enclave.

Aid organisations said last week there was

, with food running out after Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March, before resuming it in May with new restrictions.

On July 24, the UN said humanitarian pauses in Gaza would allow “the scale up of humanitarian assistance” and said Israel had not been providing enough route alternatives for its convoys, hindering aid access.

International alarm over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has increased and as Israel and the US appeared on July 25 to abandon ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, saying it had become clear that the militants did not want a deal.

Israel says there is no starvation in Gaza and that the aid halt was meant to pressure Hamas into giving up dozens of hostages it is still holding in Gaza.

Hope, uncertainty

Many Gazans expressed tentative relief about the July 27 announcement, but said the fighting must end permanently.

“People are happy that large amounts of food aid will come into Gaza,” said Mr Tamer Al-Burai, a business owner. “We hope today marks a first step in ending this war that burned everything up.”

Some others voiced concern about how aid will be delivered and whether it will reach people safely.

“Aid should enter in a logical way. When aid is airdropped, it causes injuries and damage,” said displaced Gaza resident Suhaib Mohammed.

After letting in aid in May, Israel said there was enough food in Gaza but that the United Nations was failing to distribute it. The UN said it was operating as effectively as possible under Israeli restrictions.

The war began

when Hamas-led fighters stormed southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.

Since then, Israel’s offensive against Hamas has killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health officials, reduced much of the enclave to ruins and displaced nearly the entire population. REUTERS