Israel’s military said on Monday it had suspended daytime operations in parts of the southern Gaza Strip as a new policy announced the day before appeared to take effect, amid cautious hopes it would allow more food and other goods to reach desperate civilians.
Aid workers said they hoped the daily pause in Israel’s offensive would make it less dangerous to deliver vital supplies from Kerem Shalom, a key border crossing between Israel and Gaza, to central and southern Gaza, removing one of the many obstacles to their troubled operation.
But aid agencies warn that other restrictions on movement and lawlessness in the area will continue to make it difficult to meet the urgent needs of Gaza’s people struggling to survive after eight months of war.
As food stocks in southern Gaza dwindle, “maybe they can get by for a few more weeks, but if we can’t get and maintain food supplies, then we’re going to have a big problem,” said Carl Skow, deputy director of the World Food Program, the UN arm that distributes food in Gaza. “A month ago, food supplies in southern Gaza were relatively stable, but now we’re really worried,” Skow said, after visiting Gaza last week.
The shift in Israeli action comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disbands War Cabinet An Israeli official said Monday that the committee was formed after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, which highlighted tensions within the Israeli government over the future of Israeli military operations in Gaza.
The official said Netanyahu’s decision was a largely symbolic move because last week two members of the five-member wartime cabinet, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, resigned over disagreements over the direction of the war. Both men are former military chiefsis a prominent member of the centrist opposition in parliament against the right-wing government.
Their departure has left Netanyahu more isolated, with narrower voices and less of the aura of cross-party unity that characterized his wartime cabinet. “He’s more of an echo chamber now,” said Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and analyst who served as an aide to Netanyahu in the 1990s.
Barak said disbanding the wartime cabinet “will centralize and consolidate his power and make any mutiny more difficult.”
It also makes moot the question of whether Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners — National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — will join the war cabinet. Eisenkot has already complained that Ben Gvir’s influence has Shrouded War Cabinet discussions, although he was not a member of it.
Ben Gvir, who lobbied to join a war cabinet after Gantz resigned, wrote on social media that it was “time to make courageous decisions that will lead to real deterrence and real security for the residents of southern Israel, northern Israel and the entire country.”
For now, major decisions about the Gaza war — such as whether to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas — will still be made by the broader Israeli security cabinet, which includes Mr. Ben Gvir and Mr. Smotrich. Both have argued strongly that Israel’s military offensive on Gaza must continue until Hamas is eliminated.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Netanyahu’s close advisers, such as Ron Dermer, who served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States and as a non-voting member of the war cabinet, will also continue to shape war policy.
On Sunday, the Israeli military announced a suspension of daytime operations in parts of southern Gaza after aid groups asked the military to facilitate their operations near the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza. The decision does not apply to central Gaza, where many Palestinians have fled fighting in Rafah.
“What we’re asking for is a window into Kerem Shalom without having to coordinate so closely with the IDF — to be able to move in and out freely, to allow trucks to move in and out freely,” said Scott Anderson, deputy director of the Gaza branch of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the lead U.N. agency responsible for Palestinian affairs, referring to the IDF.
Israel argues that it allows no limit on the amount of aid it can bring into Gaza. It often blames poorly organized aid organizations and theft by Hamas for the movement of food from Israeli to Palestinian-controlled territory.
“We believe their main problems are logistical, and they are not doing enough to overcome those logistical problems,” said Shimon Freedman, a spokesman for COGAT, the branch of the Israeli Defense Ministry that coordinates with aid groups.
ICC prosecutor accuses Israeli leaders of restricting aid deliveries Seeking arrest The charges included using starvation as a weapon of war.
In early May, Israel invaded Rafah, hampering the ability of aid organizations to distribute supplies from Israel and leading to the closure of Rafah, the only aid route between Egypt and Gaza.
The closure of the Rafah crossing and the fighting around it have forced aid groups and commercial suppliers to detour more convoys through Israel, with trucks entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Once the food arrives in Gaza, humanitarian organizations transfer it to their own vehicles and distribute it. The groups say Israel has done too little to ensure the safety of those delivering the aid, and point to Israeli attacks on aid convoys and workers, including airstrikes.
Gaza has become The deadliest places in the world The United Nations said on Monday that aid workers have been devastated since the war broke out in October last year, with at least 250 people killed, including nearly 200 staff members of the main UN agency operating in the area, the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
The Israeli military said on Monday it had killed more than 500 fighters in Rafah since the offensive began in early May, severely degrading the combat capabilities of two of Hamas’ four battalions in the city. The military said the combat capabilities of the remaining two battalions were at a “medium level.”
Israeli attacks have also disrupted Gaza’s supply lines, hampering the movement of convoys, with desperate Gazans frequently blocking trucks in search of food. Cash shortages have prevented many civilians from buying food brought into Gaza by commercial convoys.
As summer approaches, the demand for clean drinking water is increasing, said UNRWA Deputy Director in Gaza, Anderson.
In recent weeks, Israel has opened up more access to northern Gaza by allowing aid groups greater access, which was once the worst hit by the famine. Aid groups say sanitation and health care in northern Gaza remain severely inadequate even as food supplies improve.
“There was sewage everywhere as we drove,” said Mr. Skau, the World Food Program official.
As Israel continues its military campaign in Gaza, it also continues to engage in fighting with fighters from Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed militia operating in southern Lebanon that has for months attacked northern Israel in support of Hamas.
Attacks by Israel and Hezbollah have intensified in recent days, raising concerns that it could spark another all-out war.
White House official Amos J. Hochstein met with Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders in Israel on Monday as the Biden administration seeks to prevent a wider conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Mr. Hochstein will also meet with officials in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, according to John F. Kirby, the White House national security spokesman. “We don’t want to see an escalation. We don’t want to see a second front,” Mr. Kirby told reporters in Washington.
