By Akiva Van Koningsveld & Amelie Botbol
IDF: tactical pauses in fighting to facilitate aid delivery; UN shifts its position, will now deliver aid
In response to mountaing international criticsm of the methods of Israel and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in delivering food and other aid to Gazans, the Israel Defense Forces announced a series of humanitarian measures aimed at refuting “the false claim of deliberate starvation” in Gaza, including “tactical pauses” in the war on Hamas.
While emphasizing that “combat operations have not ceased” across the Gaza Strip, the IDF said pauses in military activities would be instituted in Al-Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City “every day until further notice.”
The decision is to cease fighting in those areas between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.
The decision was coordinated with United Nations officials and other international organizations.
Apparently, the UN has dropped its objection to work with Israel to deliver aid after it was discovered that tons of UN aid lay in the hot sun, undelivered.
Humanitarian corridors will be established to enable the movement of UN convoys delivering food and medicine to Gazans.
The secure aid routes will remain in place permanently between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.
The IDF added that it was prepared to expand the scale of its humanitarian response in the coastal enclave “as required.”
In its first-ever airdrop into Gaza on Saturday night, July 26, the Israeli Air Force delivered seven pallets of aid — including flour, sugar and canned food — in coordination with international organizations.
Israel and the US in May installed a new organization, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, to handle food aid deliveries so that it bypasses Hamas terrorists to reach Palestinians civilians.
On July 25, COGAT released extensive footage showing the hundreds of trucks on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing waiting to be picked up by the UN.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee shared photos on X of the aid waiting to be distributed, saying that there is “enough food to feed all of Gaza but it sits rotting! UN is a tool of Hamas! US-based [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation] is actually delivering food FOR FREE and SAFELY. UN food is either looted by Hamas or rots in the sun!”
The IDF noted that over the past week alone, more than 250 aid trucks had been unloaded, which it said joined “hundreds of trucks waiting at the crossings to be collected by the UN and international organizations.
“Additionally, approximately 600 trucks have been distributed by the UN and international organizations,” it said.
“The IDF, through COGAT [the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories] will continue coordinating with international organizations to collect the contents of hundreds of trucks that have not yet been collected.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog welcomed the decision to expand the humanitarian efforts in the Strip in a statement on July 27.
The head of state called on the United Nations and international NGOs “to do their part and ensure that aid reaches those in need without delay — as Israel has demanded for some time.
“It is unacceptable that aid delivered to Gaza remains undistributed or is hijacked by Hamas, even as they falsely accuse Israel of blocking it. The world must stand firm against terror — and work relentlessly to bring all our hostages home immediately,”according to Herzog.
The IDF’s new moves have been met with radically different responses within Israel.
Likud Knesset member Moshe Passal said on July 27 that it was in Israel’s best interest to ensure Gazan civilians have access to adequate food supplies.
Tzvika Foghel, a member of the Otzma Yehudit Party, said on July 27 that the world has quickly forgotten that many Gazan civilians participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror attack.
“At the sight of the massacre and the kidnappings, hundreds of thousands of Gazans celebrated during those first days of an Israeli-Jewish disaster,” he said.
“The only humanitarian aid that should reach the residents of Gaza is voluntary emigration.”
A very different view was offered by a leading Israeli commentator, Times of Israel editor David Horovitz. He wrote in a column on July 23:
“Israel, by its own deeds and words, represent[s] itself to its allies and critics alike as the address for all things Gazan — notably as regards the well-being or otherwise of Gaza’s civilian populace.
“The Gaza terror state built by Hamas in its ongoing declared goal of destroying Israel is largely in ruins, largely uninhabitable, and the Gazans that Hamas most deliberately placed in harm’s way are indeed suffering terrible harm — but with Israel, not Hamas, now having chosen to make itself responsible.”
Likud lawmaker Amit Halevi said:
“What we are doing now is resupplying Hamas. Nobody should be supplying this neo-Nazi organization. We may not need to cut off aid entirely, but we must impose an effective siege on specific areas of the Gaza Strip.
“That’s the way to fight guerrilla forces in urban areas,” he said.
“This is how you wage war. Afterward, we can apply the same strategy to the south and center of Gaza, clearing area after area until we take full control.
“Those who say stop the aid mean [stop supplying] Hamas. The population needs to be separated from Hamas. Otherwise, this war will never end.
“The population needs to be moved to another place, eliminate Hamas, and then maybe there will be hope for something else,” said Moshe Passal.
Likud Knesset member Tally Gotliv said on July 27 that “the world hates Jews more than it hates Hamas — which murdered, raped, abused and kidnapped our people.
“We have no reason to expect sympathy or legitimacy from the world. It will not happen. It is our duty to defeat Hamas and, in the process, bring back our hostages.
“Our fighters are battling fiercely in Gaza, taking into account the locations of the captives and risking their lives.
“Once again, I call on the prime minister to impose a heavy siege on Gaza and cut off electricity and internet access.
“If they want to eat and drink, they are welcome to return our hostages,” Gotliv said.
“This is the only way. And to all the liars — the enemy’s helpers — who echo the falsehood about hunger in Gaza: Hamas is using you, and using us all, and will not return even a single hostage!
“Let our fighters win,” she said. “I don’t care what the world says.
The IDF confirmed that “in line with a decision by the political echelon,” Israel had reconnected the Kela power line to Gaza’s seawater desalination plant, four months after cutting off electricity to the Strip.
“This is expected to supply approximately 20,000 cubic meters of water per day, up from the 2,000 cubic meters supplied until now, to serve about 900,000 residents in the area,” according to Israel’s military.
In a separate project, Israel approved a United Arab Emirates-led initiative to build a water pipeline from a desalination facility in Egypt to the Al-Mawasi area along Gaza’s coastline, Jerusalem’s Defense Ministry revealed.
The pipeline is expected to serve approximately 600,000 residents in the area and will operate independently of the Jewish state’s infrastructure.
On July 27, Emirati representatives began bringing equipment into the Strip from Egypt through the Kerem Shalom Crossing with southern Gaza. Construction is expected to begin in the coming days.
JTA’s Philissa Cramer contributed to this report.
