The Israeli army said on Sunday it would “pause” fighting around a southern Gaza route on a daily basis to facilitate the delivery of aid, after months of warnings of famine in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The announcement of a “local, tactical pause of military activity” during the day in an area of Rafah came a day after eight Israeli soldiers were killed in an explosion near the far southern city and another three troops died elsewhere, in one of the heaviest losses for the army in its war against Hamas militants.
UN agencies and aid groups have repeatedly raised the alarm about severe shortages of food and other essentials in the Gaza Strip, exacerbated by land access restrictions and the closure of the key Rafah crossing with Egypt since Israeli forces seized it in early May.
