Summary
Here’s a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
Israel decided on Sunday to resume the entry of “basic quantity” of food into Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said. “On the recommendation of the IDF and based on the operational need to enable the expansion of the military operation to defeat Hamas, Israel will allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population in order to make certain that no starvation crisis develops in the Gaza Strip,” the prime minister’s office said.
The Israeli military says it has begun extensive ground operations throughout northern and southern Gaza as part of a new assault on the territory. The Israeli ground forces are being supported by the county’s air force.
At least 53,339 Palestinian people have been killed and 121,034 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday. “There are still a number of victims under the rubble and on the roads,” the health ministry wrote in its latest update on Telegram.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that “we’re in a race against time to avoid famine” in Gaza. Israel imposed a blockade on the devastated Palestinian territory in early March, cutting off all supplies including food, medicine, shelter and fuel in what has been condemned as the collective punishment of the civilian population in Gaza.
Hamas official offers to release more hostages in exchange for ceasefire and 300 prisoners. A senior Hamas official has told CNN: “We agree to release seven to nine hostages in exchange for a two-month ceasefire and release of 300 prisoners.”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just indicated that Israel is open to a deal with Hamas that would include “ending the fighting” in Gaza. “Even at this very moment, the negotiation team in Doha is working to exhaust every possibility for a deal - whether according to the (US special envoy Steve) Witkoff framework or as part of ending the fighting, which would include the release of all the hostages, the exile of Hamas terrorists, and the disarmament of the Gaza Strip,” his office said in a statement.
The Israeli army has issued an evacuation order for several areas in Gaza ahead of what it is saying is an imminent attack. Addressing Gazans “in the Al-Qarara area, the Salqa municipality, and the south of Deir al-Balah, and the neighbourhoods of Al-Ja’farawi, Al-Suwar, Abu Hadab, and Al-Satar”, the army said: “This is a preliminary and final warning before the attack... For your safety, you must move immediately west to the known shelters in Al-Mawasi.”
Updated
This is the full press statement from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Israel’s decision to resume food aid into Gaza:
“On the recommendation of the IDF and based on the operational need to enable the expansion of the military operation to defeat Hamas, Israel will allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population in order to make certain that no starvation crisis develops in the Gaza Strip. Such a crisis would endanger the continuation of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ to defeat Hamas.
Israel will act to deny Hamas’s ability to take control of the distribution of humanitarian assistance in order to ensure that the assistance does not reach the Hamas terrorists.”
