intensified

Israel has said it will allow limited supplies of food into Gaza as it announced the launch of an intensified ground offensive into the battered Palestinian enclave.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that pressure from allies was behind the move. Late the previous evening, his office had said Israel would open the way for some food to enter the Gaza Strip following a “recommendation” from the army.

The announcement came shortly after the Israeli military launched “extensive ground operations” that are reported to have killed more than 150 people in the last 24 hours.

“Israel will allow a basic amount of food for the population to ensure that a hunger crisis does not develop in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement late on Sunday.

Pressure from allies

The announcement comes amid mounting international pressure on Israel to lift a two-month-long siege that threatens widespread famine in the besieged territory.

Netanyahu said in a video address on Monday that the move came after “allies” had voiced concern about “images of hunger”.

Israel’s “greatest friends in the world”, he said without mentioning specific countries, had said there is “one thing we cannot stand. We cannot accept images of hunger, mass hunger. We cannot stand that. We will not be able to support you.”

“Therefore, to achieve victory, we need to somehow solve the problem,” Netanyahu said.

The aid that would be let into Gaza would be “minimal”, he said, without specifying precisely when supplies would resume.

A spokesperson for the United Nations aid chief, Tom Fletcher, confirmed the agency had been approached by Israel to “resume limited aid delivery”, adding that discussions are ongoing about the logistics, “given the conditions on the ground”.

Munir al-Bursh, the director-general of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, said Palestinian authorities had not been informed when the border would be opened, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

Netanyahu’s far-right allies remain opposed to allowing any supplies into Gaza, insisting that military might and hunger will secure victory over Hamas.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir described the decision to allow limited food into the enclave as a “grave mistake”.

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, from Ben-Gvir’s party, denounced the plan as a “tragedy”, saying it directly harms the “war effort to achieve victory” in Gaza.

Israel has been accused of weaponising hunger and using the blockade to try to ethnically cleanse the enclave.

Despite the blockade and intensified military offensive, sources on both sides told the Reuters news agency there has been no progress in a new round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Qatar.

Netanyahu said the talks included discussions on a truce and a deal on the captives, as well as a proposal to end the war, in return for the exile of Hamas and the demilitarisation of the enclave – terms Hamas has previously rejected.

The Israeli military suggested in a later statement that it could still scale down operations to help reach a deal in Doha, Qatar.

However, Netanyahu stressed in his video address that the aim of the intensified offensive is for Israel’s forces to “take control of all” of Gaza.

“The fighting is intense and we are making progress. We will take control of all the territory of the Strip,” he said. “We will not give up. But in order to succeed, we must act in a way that cannot be stopped.”

Over the past week, Israel’s military said it had conducted a preliminary wave of strikes on more than 670 Hamas targets in Gaza. It said it killed dozens of Hamas fighters.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said in the week to Sunday, at least 464 Palestinians were killed, many of them women and children.

On Monday morning, sources told Al Jazeera that at least 23 Palestinians had been killed across Gaza since dawn, including five near al-Faluja market in Jabalia and six in Khan Younis.

There have also been reports of Israeli attacks in and around Nasser Medical Complex, and the targeting of the intensive care unit at the Indonesian Hospital, where at least 55 people are trapped, including four doctors and eight nurses.

Thousands of Palestinians have been ordered by the Israeli forces to flee parts of northern Gaza as indiscriminate air strikes have killed at least 115 people in the territory.

Palestinians in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya area fled their homes with essential belongings on Friday, after intense Israeli air strikes hit the area.

More than 19,000 Palestinians have been displaced in Gaza since Thursday afternoon, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). “Many with nothing but the clothes on their backs,” the organisation said in a post on X. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”

Nearly all of Gaza’s population has been displaced at some point during the genocide, with several forced to flee many times over. Israel has increasingly issued forced displacement orders as it escalates its attacks in the enclave.

In a statement in Arabic on Saturday, the Israeli military said it has launched the “initial stages” of what it calls Operation Gideon’s Chariots, a new offensive for “the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip, with the goal of achieving all the war’s objectives, including the release of the abducted and the defeat of Hamas”.

A separate statement in English said the army was “mobilising troops to achieve operational control in areas of the Gaza Strip”.

Israel has killed at least 115 Palestinians in Gaza since dawn on Friday as it intensifies bombardment of the enclave amid widespread forced starvation. More than 100 other Palestinians were killed on Thursday in similar attacks.

Since October 2024, Israel has killed at least 53,119 Palestinians and wounded 120,214 others, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The enclave’s Government Media Office updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.

An aide worker in Gaza who has witnessed Israel’s increased bombardment of the enclave calls it “shocking,” as Palestinians struggle with a lack of food and medical supplies. Afeef Nessouli with Gila International tells Al Jazeera Israel is also keeping medical workers from coming in or out.

Israeli PM says negotiations with Hamas will continue ‘under fire’, with just a pause for the planned release of Edan Alexander.

Israel has not agreed to any ceasefire or prisoner swap with Hamas ahead of the expected release of Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander, but is continuing to prepare to intensify its military operations in Gaza, its prime minister has stated.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement released on Monday that ceasefire negotiations “will continue under fire, during preparations for an intensification of the fighting”. The Israeli leader insisted that military pressure had forced Hamas to make the release.

“Israel has not committed to a ceasefire of any kind” or the release of Palestinian prisoners, but has only agreed to allow safe passage for the release of Alexander, the last surviving United States captive held in Gaza, the statement said.

A Hamas source told the AFP news agency later on Monday that mediators had informed the Palestinian group that Israel would pause military operations in Gaza for the handover.

‘Final deal?’

Hamas said on Monday that Alexander’s release was imminent. The armed group agreed to release him as a goodwill gesture to US President Donald Trump, who is due to arrive in the Middle East later.

The previous day, the Palestinian group had revealed that it had agreed to the release in talks with the US. Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt called it an encouraging step towards a return to ceasefire talks for war-torn Gaza.

Khalil al-Hayyah, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said the group was ready to “immediately start intensive negotiations” to reach a final deal for a long-term truce, including an end to the war, the exchange of Palestinian prisoners and remaining Israeli captives in Gaza, and the handing over of power in the enclave to an independent body of technocrats.

Alexander’s family said they hoped the decision would open the way for the release of the 59 other captives, only 21 of whom are believed to be alive.

Families of the captives and their supporters in Israel have pressed the government to reach a deal to secure the release of those still held in Gaza, but Netanyahu has faced heavy pressure from hardliners in his cabinet not to end the war.

Last week, Netanyahu announced that Israel plans a total conquest of Gaza in an intensive military operation. Israeli officials have said that the step-up in military action would not start until Trump wraps up his Middle East visit.

Israel continues to bombard the enclave.

Gaza’s Civil Defence agency reported on Monday that several people were killed and many more injured in an overnight air attack on a school housing displaced people.

“At least 10 [dead], including several women and children, as well as dozens of wounded, were transported following an Israeli air strike on the Fatima Bint Asad school, which is home to more than 2,000 displaced people in the city of Jabalia,” Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said.

Israeli forces also continued attacks across the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City in the north, Rafah in the south and the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre.