Israel allows new aid into starving Gaza under military pauses
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Live updates: Israel pauses some Gaza fighting as trickle of aid reaches starving Palestinians
More than 100 trucks delivered humanitarian aid to Gaza on Sunday. More supplies have been airdropped in from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. But humanitarian workers urge this is not enough to “even scratch the surface” Doctors Without Borders: “Airdrops are an incredibly inefficient way to deliver aid” The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says it has seen “children and adults dying of hunger and infants literally dying in their mothers’ arms” in Deir al-Balah.
Children and elders scavenge trash bins for food. Exhaustion sends people to hospital. Friends waste away to the point of being unrecognizable.
This is the reality confronting aid workers in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, a UN spokesperson on the ground told CNN on Monday.
“I have seen this with my own eyes… children and adults dying of hunger and infants literally dying in their mothers’ arms,” said Olga Cherevko, from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Beyond the front door of her guest house, Cherevko said she witnesses people of all ages rummaging through the trash for scraps on the street.
“I myself don’t recognize my friends because they look so thin,” she added.
Last week, Israeli tanks pushed into Deir al-Balah, an area that had not previously seen ground operations in the 21-month war.
The city is packed with displaced Palestinians. Now, it is one of three areas included in Israel’s “tactical pause” zones, where more than 100 trucks delivered humanitarian aid to Gaza on Sunday.
“Inefficient” air drops: More supplies have been airdropped in from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. But humanitarian workers urge this is not enough to “even scratch the surface”.
“Airdrops are an incredibly inefficient way to deliver aid,” Executive Director of Doctors Without Borders, Avril Benoit, told CNN on Monday.
“What we really need is to open up those land borders again and allow all the trucks to come in, all the food to come in.”
“Prior to this latest escalation, prior to October 7, there were 500 trucks entering Gaza every day. Now to compensate for all the gaps and the months of siege, we would need thousands of trucks to meet the needs.”
Benoit said it is not just a question of quality but also the quality of aid entering the strip, stressing the importance of specialized food to treat the malnourished.
“You can’t just give them rice and porridge and grains. They need something more substantial to be able to recover from all of the medical consequences even in the short term,” she added.
Micronutrient-rich therapeutic foods are needed for malnourished children in particular, she added, to treat damage to their internal organs and developing brains.
Israel announces daily ‘humanitarian pauses’ to allow Gaza aid distribution amid global outcry
Israel says its army is pausing military operations in some parts of Gaza for 10 hours a day. Israel also dropped supplies by air for the first time in the war on Sunday. Egypt allowed aid to enter through its border with Gaza in a first for a period when hostilities are ongoing. Israel said 120 trucks of aid entered Gaza on Monday and were taken by the U.N. to be distributed. The U.S. government says there is not evidence that Hamas has systematically stolen aid that entered Gaza.. Israeli hostages who were released during a ceasefire earlier this year said they had access to more food when aid was entering Gaza. “When there’s less food, then there�s also less for the hostages,” Yair Horn said this weekend.
(JTA) — Israel says its army is pausing military operations in some parts of Gaza for 10 hours a day to facilitate the distribution of aid to civilians.
The announcement Sunday comes amid a global outcry about the hunger crisis in the Palestinian enclave where the IDF has been battling Hamas for more than 21 months. Israel also dropped supplies by air for the first time in the war on Sunday, while Egypt allowed aid to enter through its border with Gaza in a first for a period when hostilities are ongoing.
In the first “humanitarian pause,” Israel said 120 trucks of aid entered Gaza on Monday and were taken by the United Nations to be distributed. Previously, Israel said the U.N. was unwilling to distribute aid, while the U.N. said Israel had declined to release it or safeguard its distribution.
The U.N.’s World Food Programme said in a statement that it welcomed the policy change and that it had enough food on hand to feed all of Gaza for nearly three months. It said that in addition to pausing combat, Israel had assured it safe passage through more routes within Gaza and the ability to bring in communication devices needed to coordinate distribution. (Israel had reportedly barred the devices because they could be used by Hamas fighters to coordinate attacks.)
“Together, we hope these measures will allow for a surge in urgently needed food assistance to reach hungry people without further delays,” the organization said.
Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting to set the new aid policies during Shabbat, when his far-right coalition partners, who oppose aid to Gaza and pauses in fighting without Hamas’ defeat, could not attend. One of them, Itamar Ben-Gvir, condemned the move on Sunday, tweeting, “‘Humanitarian’ aid = sustaining the enemy. Prime Minister, stop the spitting in the face of our fighters!”
Netanyahu, speaking to a conference of U.S. Christians in Jerusalem on Sunday, rebutted claims that his government is wielding starvation as an instrument of war.
“There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza,” he said, according to a transcript released by his office. “We enable humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the war to enter Gaza — otherwise, there would be no Gazans.”
Netanyahu blamed Hamas for stealing aid. Two reports this weekend — one from Reuters revealing a U.S. government analysis, and the other in the New York Times based on Israeli sources — said there was not evidence that Hamas had systematically stolen aid that entered Gaza.
Multiple Israeli hostages who were released during a ceasefire earlier this year said they had access to more food when aid was entering Gaza. “When there’s less food, then there’s also less for the hostages,” Yair Horn said this weekend. “When there’s aid, there’s a possibility you might get a cucumber.” Horn’s brother Eitan is one of 20 living hostages whom Hamas continues to hold in Gaza; there are also 30 Israelis whose bodies are being held hostage.
July 28, 2025 – Israel-Gaza news
Eyewitnesses have spoken of the horror of trying to get aid in western Gaza on Sunday. A Palestinian man described one area where desperate people gathered to grab what they could from trucks carrying flour and air drops as a “death area” Another eyewitness, who was at the site, said he managed to get a bag of flour from “under death,” saying several people were killed. In a separate incident earlier in the day, Al-Awda Hospital said it had received 12 bodies, including those of four children and one woman, and more than 100 people who had been injured after Israeli forces opened fire near an aid point.
A Palestinian man in western Gaza City described one area where desperate people gathered to grab what they could from trucks carrying flour and air drops as a “death area.”
The young man, who was carrying a bag of flour, said he saw at least one person killed and several injured when Israeli forces opened fire at close range on Sunday.
“The soldiers came face-to-face with us, locking eyes,” he said, adding: “people were shot in front of us.”
The Israel Defense Forces told CNN it was “not aware of any incident at that time and location”.
Another eyewitness, who was at the site, said he managed to get a bag of flour from “under death,” saying several people were killed without providing further details.
A Palestinian woman who was in the area said she risked her life to bring food for her two kids, claiming she was surrounded by (Israeli) tanks while there.
“There are deaths over there, there are martyrs,” she said referring to the aid site, “for what? for flour and water?” She is, however, happy to get some food for her kids. “They kept saying ’Mama, we miss bread.”
Bodies brought to hospital: In a separate incident earlier in the day, Al-Awda Hospital said it had received 12 bodies, including those of four children and one woman, and more than 100 people who had been injured after Israeli forces opened fire near an aid point in the central Gaza Strip operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday it was “not aware of any casualties” after its troops fired warning shots near the aid distribution site in central Gaza.
Earlier on Sunday, Al-Awda Hospital said it had received 12 bodies, including those of four children and one woman, and more than 100 people who had been injured after Israeli forces opened fire near an aid point in the central Gaza Strip operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
“Earlier today (Sunday), a gathering of suspects was identified adjacent to IDF troops operating in central Gaza, endangering them,” the IDF said in a statement in response to CNN’s query regarding the incident.
“The troops operated to prevent the suspects from approaching them and fired warning shots. The IDF is not aware of any casualties as a result of the warning shots,” the IDF added.
The IDF emphasized that “the warning shots were not fired at the aid distribution site, but at a distance of hundreds of meters away from it, prior to its opening hours.”
Correction: A previous version of this alert misidentified the location of where this alleged incident took place. It did not take place at a GHF site in central Gaza where a separate incident occurred earlier in the day. It was in western Gaza.
Aid deliveries a ‘drop in the ocean’ amid Gaza’s desperate hunger, UN says, as Israel resumes military pause – Israel-Gaza war live
U.S. President Donald Trump says he will set up ‘food centres’ in Gaza. UN chief Tom Fletcher says the next few days are ‘make or break’ for Gaza. More than 60,000 people have been killed and 145,000 have been injured in Gaza since the start of the conflict on 8 July, the health ministry says. The UN says it is working with local communities to get aid to those who need it. It says the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is ‘unprecedented’ and ‘out of control’ The UN has called on Israel to ‘stop the slaughter’ of civilians in Gaza and stop the use of ‘human shields’ to protect the Israeli military from Palestinian rocket attacks. The U.N. has warned that the situation in Gaza is now ‘at a critical stage’, and that more aid must be delivered to those in need. ‘We are seeing a 21st-century atrocity unfolding in front of our eyes,’ says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
During the 42-day ceasefire (that came into effect after Donald Trump re-entered the White House in January) 600-700 aid trucks were getting into Gaza each day (Israel says Gaza got 120 trucks yesterday).
The next few days “are really make or break” and much more aid needs to be delivered and delivered much more quickly.
The UN and its partners can reach everyone in Gaza in the next couple of weeks with life-saving aid if its teams are granted access at border crossings, are given the security permits they need to operate and are not otherwise blocked.
They got “quite a bit of food in” yesterday but “lots of that got looted” as it went across the border.
The humanitarian pauses implemented by Israel may “last a week or so”, which is clearly insufficient as we are seeing a “21st-century atrocity” unfolding in front of our eyes.
There needs to be a sustained period of weeks or months to stop starvation and ultimately a ceasefire is needed.
Hundreds of thousands of people are “desperately hungry” inside Gaza – so most of the lorries yesterday “were hit by desperate individual civilians, starving”.
“The flour was taken off those lorries … so what we do is we work with local communities, community kitchens, so that what we can get through then gets distributed to those who most need it and importantly that the armed groups, including Hamas, don’t get it”.
Fletcher wishes the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – an Israeli-backed delivery group – would distribute aid in a “more principled, humanitarian way”. He said the UN could deliver aid in a way that doesn’t harm civilians and deliver aid at a greater scale. “The next few days are make or break.”
Israel has begun to allow more aid into Gaza, amidst warnings malnutrition has reached ‘alarming levels’.
Tom Fletcher, the UN’s aid chief, tells #R4Today recent aid deliveries have been a ‘drop in the ocean’. — BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) July 28, 2025 Share Updated at 14.20 BST
1m ago 15.04 BST Death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza reaches 59,921, says health ministry At least 59,921 Palestinian people have been killed and 145,233 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday. At least 100 Palestinian people were killed and 382 others injured in the last 24 hours alone, the ministry said, despite the Israeli military pause in parts of the Gaza Strip. Share
27m ago 14.37 BST Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has called on Donald Trump to help stop Israel’s war on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to the strip’s desperate population.
In a televised speech, he said that Trump is “the one who is able to stop the war, deliver the aid and end this suffering”.
“Please, make every effort to stop this war and deliver the aid,” el-Sissi said, addressing Trump. “I believe that it’s time to end this war.” Share
42m ago 14.22 BST Trump says the US will set up ‘food centres’ in Gaza Donald Trump has said the US will set up “food centres” in Gaza, without elaborating on what this would actually mean in practice. He did acknowledge that starvation across the territory is real, in contradiction to what Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Addressing the media alongside Keir Starmer in Scotland, the US president was quoted as having said: We’re going to set up food centres and we’re going to do it in conjunction with some very good people and supply funds and we just took in trillions of dollars. We’ve got a lot of money and we’re going to spend a little money on some food and other nations are joining us, I know your nation’s joining us, and we have all of the European nations joining us. “We’re not going to have fences,” Trump stressed, adding that the British government would support the plan. Trump has described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “terrible” and has blamed Hamas for the “mess” in the territory and for the failed ceasefire talks. But he rarely openly criticises his close ally, Benjamin Netanyahu, whose war he fuels by providing him with a vast amount of weapons and by sheltering Israel on the diplomatic stage. View image in fullscreen Donald Trump meets with Keir Starmer at Trump Turnberry golf club in Scotland. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Reuters Share Updated at 14.39 BST
1h ago 13.45 BST The British prime minister Keir Starmer has said that Gaza is facing an “absolute catastrophe”. Speaking at Turnberry ahead of his talks with Donald Trump, the prime minister said: “It’s a humanitarian crisis, it’s an absolute catastrophe. “Nobody wants to see that. I think people in Britain are revolted at seeing what they’re seeing on their screens, so we’ve got to get to that ceasefire. “And thank you, Mr President, for leading on that, and also to just get more and more aid in and again America has done a lot on this. A lot of countries have done a lot.” He added: “This is a desperate situation.” Share
2h ago 13.29 BST Trump also said he told Israeli prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu the fight in Gaza against the Hamas militant group would have to be different after talks on a ceasefire and hostage release fell apart last week. Trump, speaking to reporters at his golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland as he welcomed British prime minister Keir Starmer, also said people in Gaza needed to get food and safety right now. He said he would discuss the situation with Starmer. Share
2h ago 13.08 BST US president Donald Trump on Monday said the European Union was going to send more aid to help Gaza and that he planned to ask British prime minister Keir Starmer to help. Trump, speaking alongside Starmer in Scotland, also said he had talked to Israeli officials and told them they may need to do things a different way. Share Updated at 13.09 BST
2h ago 12.41 BST At least 43 Palestinian people have been killed across Gaza since dawn, including nine people seeking aid, Al Jazeera is reporting, citing hospital sources. More than 1,000 people have been killed by Israeli fire while trying to get aid, most of them near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food distribution sites, during its two months in Gaza, the UN says. Share
3h ago 12.11 BST Israel committing genocide in Gaza, say Israel-based human rights groups Emma Graham-Harrison Emma Graham-Harrison is the Guardian’s chief Middle East correspondent, based in Jerusalem Two leading human rights organisations based in Israel, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, say Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the country’s western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it. In reports published on Monday, the two groups said Israel had targeted civilians in Gaza only because of their identity as Palestinians over nearly two years of war, causing severe and in some cases irreparable damage to Palestinian society. Multiple international and Palestinian groups have already described the war as genocidal, but reports from two of Israel-Palestine’s most respected human rights organisations, who have for decades documented systemic abuses, is likely to add to pressure for action. The reports detailed crimes including the killing of tens of thousands of women, children and elderly people, mass forced displacement and starvation, and the destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure that have deprived Palestinians of healthcare, education and other basic rights. You can read the full story here: Israel committing genocide in Gaza, say Israel-based human rights groups Read more Share Updated at 12.11 BST
3h ago 11.37 BST Gaza’s civil defence agency said 16 people have been killed by Israeli forces so far today. Agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency that among the dead were five people killed in an overnight strike on a residential building in the southern Gaza district of al-Mawasi, an area Israel has regularly attacked despite declaring it a “safe zone”. A pregnant woman was among those killed, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, adding its teams saved the woman’s foetus by performing a Caesarean section in a field hospital. Bassal said five people were killed in another airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, and six people were killed in two separate strikes in Gaza City and central Gaza. Central Gaza’s Al-Awda hospital said, meanwhile, that one person was killed and nine others injured when Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian people waiting for aid in central Gaza. All of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced at least once since the start of the war, and the UN says 88% of the territory is now either under evacuation orders or within Israeli military zones. View image in fullscreen Palestinian people gather at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike on a house in Khan Younis. Photograph: Ramadan Abed/Reuters Share
4h ago 10.50 BST Gaza health ministry says 14 more people have died of malnutrition, bringing total to 147 In an update posted to Telegram this morning, Gaza’s health ministry said hospitals in the Strip recorded 14 new deaths in the past 24 hours due to famine and malnutrition. This brings the total number of deaths due to malnutrition to 147, including 88 children, since the start of the war in 2023. Share Updated at 10.51 BST
5h ago 10.22 BST Here are some pictures from Gaza taken over the weekend showing chaotic scenes of masses of Palestinian people walking in the heat carrying aid: View image in fullscreen Internally displaced Palestinian people carry bags of flour near a food distribution point in Zikim, in the northern Gaza Strip on 27 July 2025. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPA View image in fullscreen After resuming its war in mid-March, Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza for two and a half months. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPA View image in fullscreen The Israeli army declared a ‘tactical pause’ in parts of the Gaza Strip on 27 July 2025 to facilitate the safe passage of humanitarian aid convoys. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPA Share Updated at 10.24 BST
5h ago 10.04 BST 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. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel is not conducting a campaign of starvation in Gaza, calling the accusation “a bold faced lie”. Share Updated at 10.21 BST
5h ago 09.54 BST Sunday’s aid deliveries only a ‘drop in the ocean’ of what is needed in Gaza, UN warns The UN’s aid chief, Tom Fletcher, has been interviewed by the BBC’s Today programme. Here are the main takeaways from what he said: Sunday’s aid deliveries were a “start” but represented a “drop in the ocean” of what the civilian population of Gaza needs.
During the 42-day ceasefire (that came into effect after Donald Trump re-entered the White House in January) 600-700 aid trucks were getting into Gaza each day (Israel says Gaza got 120 trucks yesterday).
The next few days “are really make or break” and much more aid needs to be delivered and delivered much more quickly.
The UN and its partners can reach everyone in Gaza in the next couple of weeks with life-saving aid if its teams are granted access at border crossings, are given the security permits they need to operate and are not otherwise blocked.
They got “quite a bit of food in” yesterday but “lots of that got looted” as it went across the border.
The humanitarian pauses implemented by Israel may “last a week or so”, which is clearly insufficient as we are seeing a “21st-century atrocity” unfolding in front of our eyes.
There needs to be a sustained period of weeks or months to stop starvation and ultimately a ceasefire is needed.
Hundreds of thousands of people are “desperately hungry” inside Gaza – so most of the lorries yesterday “were hit by desperate individual civilians, starving”.
“The flour was taken off those lorries … so what we do is we work with local communities, community kitchens, so that what we can get through then gets distributed to those who most need it and importantly that the armed groups, including Hamas, don’t get it”.
Fletcher wishes the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – an Israeli-backed delivery group – would distribute aid in a “more principled, humanitarian way”. He said the UN could deliver aid in a way that doesn’t harm civilians and deliver aid at a greater scale. “The next few days are make or break.”
Israel has begun to allow more aid into Gaza, amidst warnings malnutrition has reached ‘alarming levels’.
Tom Fletcher, the UN’s aid chief, tells #R4Today recent aid deliveries have been a ‘drop in the ocean’. — BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) July 28, 2025 Share Updated at 14.20 BST
6h ago 09.25 BST Israel says Gaza got 120 trucks of aid on first day of ‘military pause’ Israel said on Monday that more than 120 truckloads of food aid were distributed by the UN and aid agencies in Gaza yesterday. “Over 120 trucks were collected and distributed yesterday by the UN and international organisations,” said Cogat, the Israeli authority responsible for coordinating humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. “An additional 180 trucks entered Gaza and are now awaiting collection and distribution, along with hundreds of others still queued for UN pickup,” Cogat added in a post on X. Share Updated at 09.26 BST
6h ago 08.50 BST The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned malnutrition in Gaza has reached “alarming levels” across the territory, with rates on a “dangerous trajectory” after aid air drops resumed over the weekend. Of 74 malnutrition-related deaths in 2025, 63 occurred in July – including 24 children under five, the WHO said, adding that nearly one in five children under five in Gaza City is now “acutely malnourished”. “The crisis remains entirely preventable. Deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid has cost many lives,” the WHO said in a press release. Echoing the WHO’s concerns, the World Food Programme (WFP) said 90,000 women and children were in urgent need of treatment for malnutrition and that one in three people were going without food for days. View image in fullscreen A Palestinian child suffering from malnutrition due to starvation is seen at al-Rantisi hospital in northern Gaza City. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock Share
Israel says it’s begun daily pauses in fighting in parts of Gaza to let aid in
Israeli military began a limited pause in fighting in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day. Israel said the new measures were taking place while it continues its offensive against Hamas in other areas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that more than 120 truckloads of food aid were distributed by the U.N. and aid agencies in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Defense Forces said the pause would begin every day at 10 a.m. local time, effective Sunday, and continue until further notice.”This (humanitarian) truce will mean nothing if it doesn’t turn into a real opportunity to save lives,” said Dr. Muneer al-Boursh, director general of Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, who called for a flood of medical supplies and other goods to help treat child malnutrition. “Every delay is measured by another funeral,” the Israeli prime minister said. “We’re exploring all options,” he said, “but we’re not going to give up on the fight against hunger”
The Israel Defense Forces said it would begin a “tactical pause” in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi, three areas of the territory with large populations, to “increase the scale of humanitarian aid” entering the Gaza Strip. It said the pause would begin every day at 10 a.m. local time, effective Sunday, and continue until further notice.
“Whichever path we choose, we will have to continue to allow the entry of minimal humanitarian supplies,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Israel said Monday that more than 120 truckloads of food aid were distributed by the U.N. and aid agencies in the Gaza Strip, French news agency AFP reported.
The military early Sunday carried out aid airdrops into Gaza, which included packages of aid with flour, sugar and canned food, “as part of the ongoing efforts to allow and facilitate the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip,” the IDF posted on Telegram.
Palestinians crowd at a lentil soup distribution point in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on July 27, 2025. OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images
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, without providing evidence for that claim. Images emerging from Gaza in recent days of emaciated children have fanned global criticism of Israel, including from close allies, who have called for an end to the war and the humanitarian catastrophe it has spawned.
“What’s happening in Gaza right now is appalling. Gaza is now in the brink of a full catastrophe, and we’ve been working out, over the months, to try and relief (sic) the sufferings of the Palestinian people,” French Foreign Minister Jean‑Noël Barrot said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
The United Nations’ food agency welcomed the steps to ease aid restrictions, but said a broader ceasefire was needed to ensure goods reached everyone in need in Gaza.
“Welcome announcement of humanitarian pauses in Gaza to allow our aid through,” U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher said on X. “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.”
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said on Sunday that hospitals recorded six new deaths due to malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including two children. The organization said at least 133 people, including 87 children, have died from malnutrition in the Gaza Strip.
Volunteers prepare lentil soup to be distributed in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on July 27, 2025. OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images
Israel said the new measures were taking place while it continues its offensive against Hamas in other areas. Ahead of the pause, Palestinian health officials in Gaza said at least 27 Palestinians were killed in separate attacks.
“This (humanitarian) truce will mean nothing if it doesn’t turn into a real opportunity to save lives,” said Dr. Muneer al-Boursh, director general of Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, who called for a flood of medical supplies and other goods to help treat child malnutrition. “Every delay is measured by another funeral.”
International aid envoys headed to Gaza
Trucks loaded with aid from Egypt and Jordan are headed for Gaza amid Israel’s “tactical pause.” The Egyptian Red Crescent dispatched more than 100 trucks carrying over 1,200 tons of food supplies, including 840 tons of flour and 450 tons of assorted food baskets, toward the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Photographers in Gaza captured the first images of trucks carrying aid entering the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing in Rafah, Egypt.
Trucks transporting humanitarian aid enter Gaza through the Rafah Border Crossing from Egypt on July 27, 2025 in Rafah, Gaza. Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images
Jordan’s security agency posted a video on social media purportedly showing a line of aid-loaded trucks moving toward Gaza.
“We actually have 52 tons of humanitarian help stuck in El-Arish in Egypt, a few kilometers away from Gaza,” Barrot said Sunday. “So we’re exploring all options to seize the opportunity offered by the Israeli government by opening the skies of Gaza, but we call for immediate, unhindered, and massive access by all means of humanitarian help to those who need it most.”
The UN’s World Food Program said it welcomes Israel’s move and that it has enough food to feed the entire population of 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza for nearly three months. In a statement, it said that a third of Gaza’s population were not eating for days and nearly half a million were enduring famine-like conditions.
It said it hopes that Israel’s assurances for secure corridors will “allow for a surge in urgently needed food assistance to reach hungry people without further delays.” However, the WFP reiterated that a ceasefire is “the only way for humanitarian assistance to reach the entire civilian population in Gaza with critical food supplies in a consistent, predictable, orderly and safe manner.”
Israel’s decision to order a localized pause in fighting came days after ceasefire efforts between Israel and Hamas appeared to be in doubt. On Friday, Israel and the U.S. recalled their negotiating teams, blaming Hamas, and Israel said it was considering “alternative options” to ceasefire talks with the militant group.
Israel says it is prepared to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something the group has refused to agree to.
Palestinians gather at aid distribution points, forming large crowds as they rush to collect boxes and sacks of supplies as trucks transporting humanitarian aid enter Gaza from the Zikim area. Khames Alrefi/Anadolu via Getty Images
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawi said that Israel’s change of tack on the humanitarian crisis amounted to an acknowledgement that there were starving Palestinians in Gaza and that the move was meant to improve its international standing and not save lives.
He said that Israel “will not escape punishment and will inevitably pay the price for these criminal practices.”
At least 27 Palestinians killed in latest strikes, health officials say
The Awda Hospital in Nuseirat said Israeli forces killed at least 11 people and wounded 101 as they were headed toward a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution site in central Gaza. GHF, which denies involvement in any of the violence near its sites, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The military said it was looking into the report.
Elsewhere, a strike hit a tent sheltering a displaced family in the Asdaa area, northwest of the southern city of Khan Younis, killing at least nine people, according to Nasser Hospital. The dead included a father and his two children, and another father and his son, the hospital said.
A Palestinian woman carries a food parcel as people return to the Nuseirat refugee camp from a US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution point near the Netsarim corridor in the central Gaza Strip, on July 27, 2025. EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images
In Gaza City, a strike hit an apartment late Saturday in the city’s western side, killing four people, including two women, said the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service. In Deir-al-Balah early Sunday, a strike on a tent near a desalination plant killed a couple and another woman, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes. However, it usually blames Hamas for civilian casualties, saying the Palestinian militant group operates in populated areas.
The military announced Sunday that another two soldiers were killed in Gaza, bringing the total number of soldiers killed since Oct. 7, 2023, to 898.
The war began with Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israel, when militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. Hamas still holds 50 hostages, more than half of them believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 59,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Israel again intercepts Gaza-bound ship carrying activists and humanitarian aid
The Israeli military has intercepted a Gaza-bound aid ship seeking to break the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory, detaining 21 international activists and journalists and seizing all cargo, including baby formula, food and medicine, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said Sunday.
The coalition that operates the vessel Handala said the Israeli military “violently intercepted” the ship in international waters about 40 nautical miles from Gaza, cutting the cameras and communication, just before midnight Saturday.
The Handala vessel taking the sea after a press point, the vessel ‘Handala’ of Freedom Flotilla Coalition departed from Gallipoli Port, in Italy, on 20 July 2025. Valeria Ferraro/Anadolu via Getty Images
“All cargo was non-military, civilian and intended for direct distribution to a population facing deliberate starvation and medical collapse under Israel’s illegal blockade,” the group said in a statement.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment. Israel’s Foreign Ministry posted on X early Sunday that the Navy stopped the vessel and was bringing it to shore.
It was the second ship operated by the coalition that Israel has prevented in recent months from delivering aid to Gaza, where food experts have for months warned of the risk of famine. Activist Greta Thunberg was among 12 activists on board the ship Madleen when the Israeli military seized it in June.