The first trucks carrying humanitarian aid have been allowed into Gaza by Israel – as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces his forces will take full control of the Gaza Strip as part of their latest, expanded offensive against the territory.
Five aid lorries entered via the Kerem Shalom crossing on Monday – ending a near three-month blockade by Israel – after Mr Netanyahu agreed to allow a “limited” amount of aid in the face of a famine from food security experts.
The move, welcomed by the United Nations, came on the same day the prime minister revealed that Israel had plans to “take control of all” of the Gaza Strip following the latest round of airstrikes in Gaza.
“The fighting is intense, and we are making progress. We will take control of all the territory of the strip,” Mr Netanyahu said in a video posted to his Telegram channel. “We will not give up. But in order to succeed, we must act in a way that cannot be stopped.”
Mr Netanyahu added that lifting the blockade on aid entering the territory was for “practical and diplomatic reasons” that centred on pacifying Israel’s international critics. The blockade has been in place since a truce fell apart in March.
The Israeli military said forces engaged in a new campaign dubbed “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” were active across Gaza, seeking to eliminate Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and to bring back the remaining hostages seized in October 2023.
Over the weekend, Israeli forces announced they were launching “extensive” operations in the north of Gaza, towards the Jabaliya refugee camp, and southwards towards the city of Khan Younis.
Palestinians in Khan Younis were ordered to “evacuate immediately” on Monday morning ahead of what Israeli forces described as an “unprecedented attack to destroy” Hamas.
“From this moment, Khan Younis will be considered a dangerous combat zone,” Israel spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on Telegram.
Previous Israeli air and ground offensives have already caused heavy damage to the city. Almost the entire population of 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza, who are barred from leaving the territory, have been displaced by Israel’s constant attacks. Many have been forced to relocate numerous times as Israel returns for further military operations.
Palestinian health officials said more than 500 people have been killed in attacks in the past eight days.
Nedal Hamdouna a journalist who was force to flee bombing for the eight time over the weekend said the situation was a nightmare.
“While I was evacuating I saw people screaming and crying as they received the news of the killing of their sons in an Israeli airstrike,” he told The Independent. “I passed by the cemetery road where I saw some young men burying their relatives who were killed this morning,” he said.
Israel’s ground and air war has killed more than 53,000 people, many of them civilians, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
The war erupted after Hamas-led militants attacked Israeli communities near the border with Gaza on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli army spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Nadav Shoshani, said there was “no end date necessarily” for the newly expanded and intensified operation in Gaza, adding that the army had hit over 800 targets in Gaza in “recent days” and that there were five divisions operating there, after tens of thousands of reservists were mobilised.
On Monday, Cogat, the Israeli army unit given the task of delivering aid to the occupied territories, said: “Following the recommendation of professional IDF officials and in accordance with the directive of the political echelon, 5 UN trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including food for babies, were transferred today via the Kerem Shalom Crossing into the Gaza Strip.
“All aid was transferred following a thorough security inspection by personnel from the Ministry of Defense’s Crossing Points Authority.”
Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Colonel Shoshani declined to confirm or deny whether the Israeli military would indefinitely hold areas of Gaza, as suggested by the Israeli premier.
The military spokesperson told reporters the main goal of the new operation was “to target Hamas’ command and control systems, to target their commanders, to target their remaining capabilities.” However, he acknowledged that this means forcing civilians to flee again — without confirming how many people have been asked to move.
Palestinian health officials, meanwhile, said more than 500 people have been killed in attacks in the past eight days as Israel has stepped up its ferocious military campaign.
The health ministry in Gaza said several hospitals had been hit or surrounded. In a message posted to Telegram groups today, the Ministry of Health said Israeli forces fired directly at the intensive care unit at the Indonesian Hospital and bombed the European Gaza Hospital with 14 rockets, “complicating the hospital’s chances of reopening.”
When The Independent asked the Israeli military about these reports, Lt. Colonel Shoshani replied that the army “does not attack hospitals” and that they were “operating according to international law.”
Dr Khaled El-Serr who is head of Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, said his was the last working medical centre in the south of Gaza after the Israeli military issued new forced evacuation orders.
“The situation in the hospital is disastrous… we are overwhelmed with patients. We’ve had to place injured people in the paediatrics and obstetrics wards because there is no space left in the surgical departments,” he said.
“Some patients are being treated in tents and other unsuitable areas where proper care and monitoring are impossible,” he told The Independent as Israeli drones whined in the background.”
The director general of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Monday morning that more than 2 million people, out of a total population of 2.3 million, are currently starving in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu said it was important for Gaza not to “reach a state of starvation, both from a practical and a diplomatic perspective”, because Israel’s international backers “simply will not support us [and ] we will not be able to complete the mission of victory”.
US president Donald Trump, who is viewed as one of America’s most pro-Israel leaders, said last week on the final day of his Gulf tour that people were starving in Gaza and suggested that the US would have the situation “taken care of”. European allies, including the UK, have also voiced serious concerns about the dire humanitarian situation.
Private US companies, under the security control of Israeli forces, will eventually administer the aid, in a move that has been criticised by humanitarian groups as illegal. Until then, the United Nations will lead “limited” efforts to restore deliveries into Gaza.
Hardline nationalist ministers in Mr Netanyahu’s cabinet who had previously opposed all aid to the strip endorsed the move. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, echoing Mr Netanyahu’s message, suggested it was necessary to ensure the continued war.
“I understand the anger and the stomach aches,” he said on Monday morning. “Until the last of the kidnapped people returns, not even water should be brought in, but the reality is different.”
Israel made its announcement on aid after sources on both sides reported no progress had been made in a new round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Qatar.
Israel has also been pounding Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen. Shoshani said the Israeli military deployed 15 aircraft, including fighter jets, to strike seaports and the airport in Yemen.
“They were successfully conducted… and they disabled the ports and reduced the Houthis’ capabilities to transfer their core equipment or anything funding terror into Yemen.”
