Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 10pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Nine aid trucks were authorised to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing after 11 weeks of a complete blockade, a mere “drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed”, the UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, said on Monday. Five trucks carrying baby food and other desperately needed aid entered Gaza, according to the Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, COGAT. The UN has long said Gaza needs at least 500 trucks every day.
Benjamin Netanyahu said the aid that would be let into Gaza would be “minimal” as he announced that Israel plans to take control of all of Gaza. The Israeli leader, in a video message on Monday, said while Israel was deploying “massive force to take control of all of the Gaza Strip … we cannot reach a point of starvation, for practical and diplomatic reasons.”
At least 136 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours, Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday. The overall Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks in Gaza is now at 53,486, according to the ministry.
Two million people are starving in Gaza while tonnes of food are being blocked at the border “just minutes away”, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said. The WHO has said around a quarter of the 2.1m population in Gaza are facing “a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death” due to the Israeli blockade.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ordered residents living in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, Bani Suheila and Abasan to “evacuate immediately” ahead of an “unprecedented attack”. A statement from the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said Israeli forces “will launch an unprecedented attack to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organisations in this area.”
Israel’s restarting of “minimal” aid deliveries to Gaza comes after the Trump administration warned it would “abandon” Israel if it did not end the war in Gaza, according to a Washington Post report. A US official later denied the report, claiming “the idea that we would abandon Israel is preposterous.”
The leaders of Britain, France and Canada threatened “further concrete actions” if Israel does not stop a renewed military offensive in Gaza and lift aid restrictions. The statement by Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney on Monday condemns Israel’s expansion of military operations in Gaza as “wholly disproportionate”, adding that the “level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable”.
A joint statement by 22 countries demanded that Israel immediately “allow a full resumption of aid into Gaza”. Foreign ministers from countries including the UK, Australia and Germany also sharply rejected a reported Israeli plan to replace the previous system of delivering aid into Gaza.
The UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, said that the situation in Gaza is “intolerable”. Starmer said: “It is a really serious, unacceptable, intolerable situation. That’s why we are working intensely to coordinate with other leaders how we respond to this.” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen called for the blockade to be lifted, adding that “humanitarian aid must never been politicised.”
Israel’s hardline minister for national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said Netanyahu is “making a grave mistake” by allowing any humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, which Israel has been blockading. Ben-Gvir said “any humanitarian aid that enters the Strip … will fuel Hamas and give it oxygen while our hostages languish in tunnels.”
The Israeli army targeted a warehouse storing medical supplies at the Nasser medical complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Monday. The World Health Organization (WHO), citing the hospital director, said about 30% of the warehouse as well as critical WHO supplies, including IV fluids and dialysis solutions were reportedly destroyed. The attack reportedly happened while Palestinians who were injured or killed in other Israeli airstrikes were being brought to the hospital.
A US official has denied a report citing an unnamed source who claimed the Trump administration would “abandon” Israel if it did not end the war in Gaza.
“The idea that we would abandon Israel is preposterous,” the US official said, according to the Times of Israel.
