Israeli strikes killed at least 78 Palestinians in multiple locations across Gaza on Monday, local health officials said, a day after Israel eased aid restrictions in the face of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the territory.
The dead included a newborn who was delivered in a complex surgery after his mother, who was seven months pregnant, was killed in a strike, according to the Nasser Hospital.
Dozens were killed while seeking food, even as Israel moved to ease restrictions on the entry of aid.
Israel announced Sunday that the military would pause operations in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and al-Mawasi for 10 hours a day until further notice to allow for the improved flow of aid to Palestinians in Gaza, where concern over hunger has grown, and designate secure routes for aid delivery.
Israel said it would continue military operations alongside the new humanitarian measures. The Israeli military had no immediate comment about the latest strikes, which occurred outside the time frame for the pause Israel declared would be held between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Israel has resumed airdrops of aid into Gaza after it faced waves of international criticism over its role in Gaza’s hunger crisis. The Israeli military also said it would begin a ‘tactical pause’ in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day to allow more humanitarian aid to be delivered.
Aid agencies have welcomed the new aid measures, which also included allowing airdrops into Gaza, but said they were not enough to counter the rising hunger in the Palestinian territory.
As of Monday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 14 people had died in the past 24 hours of starvation and malnutrition, bringing the war’s death toll from hunger to 147, including 89 children, most in just the last few weeks.
Images of emaciated children have sparked outrage around the world, including from Israel’s close allies. U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called the images of emaciated and malnourished children in Gaza “terrible.”
Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war. In March, it cut off the entry of all goods, including fuel, food and medicine to pressure Hamas to free hostages.
Israel partially lifted those restrictions in May but also pushed ahead on a new U.S. and Israeli-backed aid delivery system that has been racked by chaos and violence. Traditional aid providers also have encountered a similar breakdown in law and order surrounding their aid deliveries.
More long-term steady aid supply needed
A long-term steady supply of aid is needed to counter the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza, UN agencies said on Monday after mounting pressure prompted Israel to ease restrictions in the Palestinian enclave.
The World Food Program (WFP) said 60 trucks of aid had been dispatched but that this amount fell short of Gaza’s needs.
“Sixty is definitely not enough. So our target at the moment, every day, is to get 100 trucks into Gaza,” WFP regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, Samer AbdelJaber, told Reuters.
The WFP said that almost 470,000 people in Gaza are enduring famine-like conditions, with 90,000 women and children in need of specialist nutrition treatments.
“I cannot say that in a week we will be able to really avert the risks. It has to be something continuous and scalable,” AbdelJaber said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday that Canada welcomes early steps by Israel to widen channels through which aid in Gaza can be delivered but they need to be expanded.
When asked by a CBC News reporter if Canada will recognize Palestinian statehood, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will continue to support a two-state solution with ‘a free and viable Palestine living in peace and side-by-side in peace and security with Israel.’
Trump promises ‘food centres’ with no fences
On Monday, Trump said Hamas had become difficult to deal with in recent days, but he was talking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about “various plans” to free hostages still held in the enclave.
Trump also said the U.S. would work with other countries to provide more humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, including food and sanitation.
“We’re going to set up food centres,” with no fences or boundaries to ease access, Trump told reporters after a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland.
Trump’s remarks came as dozens of ministers gathered at the United Nations for a delayed conference to work toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, but the U.S. and Israel are boycotting the event.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is joining dozens of ministers at the United Nations for a delayed conference to work toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. Hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, the conference was postponed in June after Israel attacked Iran.
The 193-member UN General Assembly decided in September that such a conference would be held in 2025. It was postponed in June after Israel attacked Iran.
“We must ensure that [the conference] does not become another exercise in well-meaning rhetoric,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in opening remarks.
“It can and must serve as a decisive turning point — one that catalyzes irreversible progress towards ending the occupation and realizing our shared aspiration for a viable two-state solution.”
More Palestinians killed near aid hubs
Most of Gaza’s population now relies on aid. Accessing food has become a challenge that some Palestinians have risked their lives for.
The Awda hospital in central Gaza said it received the bodies of seven Palestinians who it said were killed Monday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The hospital said 20 others were wounded close to the site. GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The pregnant woman and her child were killed along with 11 others after their house was struck in the al-Mawasi area, west of the southern city of Khan Younis, according to a hospital run by the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Another strike hit a two-storey house in Khan Younis, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, said the Nasser Hospital, which received the casualties. At least five others were killed in strikes elsewhere in Gaza, according to local hospitals.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on most of the strikes. It said it was not aware of one strike in Gaza City during the pause that health officials said killed one person.
In its Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. It still holds 50, more than half Israel believes to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 59,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
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