Israel has responded to sustained and growing international condemnation that it is responsible for starvation in Gaza by announcing a series of measures the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said would “improve the humanitarian response”.
It is allowing airdrops of aid, carrying out the first one itself during the night and allowing the United Arab Emirates air force to follow with another later on Sunday.
The IDF also announced that it would allow a “tactical pause in military activity” in some areas and set up “designated humanitarian corridors… to refute the false claim on intentional starvation.”
Hamas has condemned the moves as a “deception”. Israel, it said, was “whitewashing its image before the world”.
Israel later carried out an airstrike during the “tactical pause.” Reports from the scene say a mother called Wafaa Harara and her four children, Sara, Areej, Judy and Iyad were killed.
While Israel continues to insist it is not responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and does not impose restrictions on aid entering Gaza, those claims are not accepted by its close allies in Europe, or the United Nations and other agencies active in Gaza.
The new measures might be a tacit admission by the Israelis that they need to do more.
More likely they are a gesture to allies who have issued strong statements blaming Israel for starvation in Gaza.
The latest, on Friday 25 July, from Britain, France and Germany was stark.
“We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and urgently allow the UN and humanitarian NGOs to carry out their work in order to take action against starvation. Israel must uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law.”
Israel followed a total blockade of all aid into Gaza with restrictions on the approval of the contents and movement of aid convoys. With the Americans, it has set up a new system of distributing aid through the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), intended to replace the aid network run by the United Nations. Israel claims that Hamas stole aid from the UN system. The UN says it is still waiting for the Israelis to back their claims with evidence.
The UN and other agencies will not cooperate with the GHF system, which they say is inhumane and militarised. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been shot dead looking for food since the GHF operation, according to the UN.
A retired US special forces colonel who worked for the GHF in Gaza told the BBC that he saw American colleagues and IDF soldiers opening fire on civilians. Both deny they have targeted civilians.
