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Palestinians camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 17, 2025, as people return to northern parts of Gaza during a current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas. Photo by Bashar Taleb/AFP

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Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/174760675750420250519 (1).jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Palestinians camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 17, 2025, as people return to northern parts of Gaza during a current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas. <em>Photo by Bashar Taleb/AFP</em></span></span></span></div><p>GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories - Israel will allow a &quot;basic amount&quot; of food into the Gaza Strip, the prime minister&#x27;s office said Sunday, after facing mounting pressure to lift a total blockade imposed more than two months ago.</p><p>The announcement came hours after the military said it had begun &quot;extensive ground operations&quot; in a newly intensified campaign in Gaza, and as Israel and Hamas engaged in indirect talks on a deal to potentially halt the fighting.</p><p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&#x27;s office said that at the military&#x27;s recommendation, &quot;Israel will authorize the entry of a basic amount of food for the population to ensure that a hunger crisis does not develop in the Gaza Strip&quot;.</p><p>Such a crisis would jeopardise the army&#x27;s new operation, it said, adding Israel would &quot;act to prevent Hamas from seizing this humanitarian aid&quot;.</p><p>Israel said its blockade since March 2 was aimed at forcing concessions from the Palestinian militant group, but UN agencies have warned of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yWnmblR88ho?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><br/></div><p>Last week US President Donald Trump, a critical ally, acknowledged that &quot;a lot of people are starving&quot;, adding &quot;we&#x27;re going to get that taken care of&quot;.</p><p>French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called on Israel following the latest announcement, to allow the &quot;immediate, massive and unhampered&quot; resumption of aid.</p><p>Israel&#x27;s military announced on Sunday that troops had &quot;begun extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip&quot;, and were &quot;currently being deployed in key positions&quot;.</p><p>The ramped-up campaign, which Israel says aims to free hostages and defeat Hamas, started Saturday as the two sides entered indirect talks in Qatar on a deal.</p><p>Netanyahu&#x27;s office said negotiators Doha were &quot;working to exhaust every possibility for a deal -- whether according to the Witkoff framework or as part of ending the fighting&quot;.</p><p>Steve Witkoff is the US Middle East envoy who has been involved in discussions.</p><p>Netanyahu&#x27;s statement said a deal &quot;would include the release of all the hostages, the exile of Hamas terrorists, and the disarmament of the Gaza Strip&quot;.</p><p>Since a two-month ceasefire collapsed in March as Israel resumed its offensive, negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to make a breakthrough.</p><p>Netanyahu has opposed ending the war without Hamas&#x27;s total defeat, while Hamas has balked at handing over its weapons.</p><p>A Hamas source familiar with the negotiations said the group was willing &quot;to release all Israeli hostages in one batch, provided that a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire agreement is reached&quot;, but Israel &quot;wants to release its prisoners in one batch or in two batches in exchange for a temporary truce&quot;.</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XHsjCI93p2g?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>- &#x27;Working toward&#x27; a deal -</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Speaking to troops in Gaza Sunday, Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir said the military would &quot;provide flexibility to the political echelon to advance any hostage deal&quot;.</p><p>&quot;A hostage deal is not a halt, it is an achievement. We are actively working toward it,&quot; he said.</p><p>Air raid sirens sounded in southern Israel on Sunday afternoon and the army said one of two projectiles launched from Gaza had been intercepted.</p><p>The military later issued an evacuation order for several parts of Gaza ahead of an attack, warning it would &quot;launch a powerful strike on any area used for launching rockets&quot;.</p><p>On the ground, Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP at least 50 people had been killed as of Sunday afternoon &quot;as a result of ongoing Israeli air strikes since the early hours&quot;.</p><p>He said 22 people died and at least 100 others were wounded in one attack on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip.</p><p>AFPTV footage showed people sifting through ruined shelters and rescuers treating the wounded.</p><p>&quot;All my family members are gone. There is no one left,&quot; said a distraught Warda al-Shaer.</p><p>&quot;The children were killed as well as their parents. My mother died too, and my niece lost her eye.&quot;</p><p>The military said in a statement that a &quot;preliminary wave&quot; of strikes over the past week had hit &quot;over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip&quot;.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>- Hospitals &#x27;out of service&#x27; -</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals at Gaza&#x27;s health ministry, told AFP that since Israel&#x27;s aid blockade began, &quot;57 children have died in Gaza as a result of famine&quot;, adding the number could rise as supplies ran out.</p><p>AFP was not able to independently verify the figure.</p><p>The UN had warned of the risk of famine in Gaza before the aid blockade was imposed.</p><p>The health ministry also accused Israel Sunday of besieging the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, cutting off access and &quot;effectively forcing the hospital out of service&quot;, leaving the north without a functioning public hospital.</p><p>Hamas&#x27;s October 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.</p><p>Hamas also took 251 hostages during the attack, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.</p><p>Gaza&#x27;s health ministry said Sunday at least 3,193 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war&#x27;s overall toll to 53,339.</p><p>az-smw/tw</p><p>© Agence France-Presse</p>

<p>Israel will allow a "basic amount" of food into the Gaza Strip, the prime minister's office said Sunday, after facing mounting pressure to lift a total blockade imposed more than two months ago.</p>

Israel will allow a "basic amount" of food into the Gaza Strip, the prime minister's office said Sunday, after facing mounting pressure to lift a total blockade imposed more than two months ago.

Israel to allow food into Gaza after two month blockade

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Israel to allow food into Gaza after two month blockade

Agence France-Presse

Published May 19, 2025 06:19 AM PHT

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