Israel's military said it would "pause" fighting around a south Gaza route to facilitate aid deliveries on Saturday, June 15. The news comes after months of warnings of famine in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The announcement of a "local, tactical pause of military activity" during daylight hours in an area of Rafah came a day after eight Israeli soldiers were killed in a blast near the far-southern city and three more troops died elsewhere, in one of the heaviest losses for the army in its war against Hamas militants.
"A local, tactical pause of military activity for humanitarian purposes will take place from 8:00 am until 7:00 pm every day until further notice along the road that leads from the Kerem Shalom crossing to the Salah al-Din road and then northwards," a military statement said. A map released by the army showed the declared humanitarian route extending until Rafah's European Hospital, about 10 kilometers from Kerem Shalom.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondents in Gaza said there were no reports of strikes, shelling or fighting on Sunday morning, though the military stressed in a statement there was "no cessation of hostilities in the southern Gaza Strip." The decision, which the military said was already in effect, was part of efforts to "increase the volumes of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip" following discussions with the UN and other organizations, it said. The announcement also comes on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
UN agencies and aid groups have repeatedly sounded the alarm of dire shortages of food and other essentials in the Gaza Strip, exacerbated by overland access restrictions and the closure of the key Rafah crossing with Egypt since Israeli forces seized it in early May.
Israel has long defended its efforts to let aid into Gaza including via its Kerem Shalom border near Rafah, blaming militants for looting supplies and humanitarian workers for failing to distribute them to civilians.
The United States, which has been pressing close ally Israel as well as Hamas to agree to a ceasefire plan laid out by President Joe Biden, on Friday imposed sanctions on an extremist Israeli group for blocking and attacking Gaza-bound aid convoys.
The military said the eight soldiers killed Saturday were hit by an explosion as they were traveling in an armored vehicle near Rafah, where troops were engaged in fierce street battles against Palestinian militants. Military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a televised briefing that the blast was "apparently from an explosive device planted in the area or from the firing of an anti-tank missile."
Separately, two soldiers were killed in fighting in northern Gaza and another succumbed to wounds inflicted in recent fighting.
Saturday's losses were among the heaviest for the military since it began its ground offensive in Gaza on October 27, taking its overall toll since then to 309 deaths. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences following "this terrible loss." In a statement, he said that "despite the heavy and unsettling price, we must cling to the goals of the war."