Israel will soon slow or halt humanitarian aid into parts of northern Gaza as it expands its offensive, attempting to cripple Hamas, an official said on Saturday.
The official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said Israel will stop airdrops over Gaza City in the coming days and reduce the arrival of aid trucks into the northern part of the strip as it prepares to evacuate hundreds of thousands of residents.
It was unclear when the pause in aid would begin and when the airdrops would fully stop. By Saturday, there had been no airdrops for several days across Gaza, a break from the almost daily drops for the past few weeks.
Israel’s army didn’t respond to a request for comment about the airdrops or how it would provide aid to Palestinians as Israel ramped up its offensive.
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On Friday, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee urged Palestinians to flee south, calling evacuation “inevitable.”
Aid groups warn that a large-scale evacuation of Gaza City would exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis.
Earlier this month, the leading authority on food crises said that Gaza City was in famine and that half a million people across the strip were facing catastrophic levels of hunger. On Saturday, the health ministry in Gaza said 10 people died as a result of starvation and malnutrition over the past 24 hours, among them three children.
The head of the international Red Cross on Saturday denounced Israel’s plans, insisting there was no way it could be done safely.
“It is impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could ever be done in a way that is safe and dignified under the current conditions,” International Committee of the Red Cross president Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement. “Such an evacuation would trigger a massive population movement that no area in the Gaza Strip can absorb, given the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the extreme shortages of food, water, shelter and medical care.”
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Hundreds of residents have begun leaving Gaza City, piling their few remaining possessions onto pickup trucks or donkey carts. Many have been forced to leave their homes more than once.
The U.N. said Thursday that 23,000 people had evacuated this past week, but many in Gaza City say there is nowhere safe to go. Others who have been displaced south worry that the area can’t support an influx of people.
“There is no food and even water is not available. When it is available, it is not safe to drink,” said Amer Zayed as he waited for food from a charity kitchen in the southern city of Deir Al-Balah.
“What exacerbates the situation is the displacement of residents … The suffering gets worse when there are more displaced people,” he said.
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On Friday, Israel’s military said that it had launched the “initial stages” of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City, declaring the Palestinian territory’s biggest population center a “dangerous combat zone.” It called Gaza City a Hamas stronghold and alleged that a network of tunnels remains in use despite previous large-scale raids on the area throughout the nearly 23-month-long war.
Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, had made their plans to push into Gaza City clear for weeks. The expansion of the war, which was announced along with an expanded call-up of 60,000 Israeli military reservists, drew international condemnation from the moment it was announced.
The military’s announcement to resume fighting came as the death toll in Gaza rose to more than 63,000 people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. On Saturday, four people were killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to get aid in central Gaza, according to health officials at Awda hospital, where the bodies were brought.