Israel to start 10-hour pauses in Gaza fighting on Sunday as famine looms

CAIRO – 27 July 2025: The Israeli army, responsible for killing nearly 60,000 Palestinians including many due to malnutrition, announced on Sunday that it will start 10-hour pauses in three areas across Gaza to facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries.

The “tactical pause” will start on Sunday and last from 10 AM to 8 PM local time every day until further notice, the Israeli army noted in a statement on X.

The pauses will include areas where the forces are not operating, including Gaza City, Deir Al Balah and Al Mawasi areas, the Israeli army added.

They also announced designating secure routes from 6 AM to 11 PM to ensure the safe movement of UN and aid organization convoys and allow distribution of food and medical supplies to the population “throughout” the enclave.

Food experts have frequently warned of a looming famine in Gaza as photos of children, skin and bone and dying from hunger, have drawn global outcry and triggered intensive calls from Israel’s closest allies in Europe for an end to the war.

Egypt to Launch Aid Campaign

Sources told Egypt’s Al Qahera News on Saturday night that the Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) will launch a humanitarian campaign to support the Palestinian people in Gaza starting Sunday morning.

The sources underlined ongoing Egyptian and Qatari efforts to increase humanitarian aid bound for Gaza, utilizing multiple crossings.

They reported that a humanitarian aid bridge to Gaza will include flour and other food supplies, besides medical necessities.

Hunger Crisis

Israel has placed heavy restrictions on aid since the start of the war in October 2023, claiming that Hamas steals aid with providing evidence for such claim.

A US government analysis conducted recently by a bureau within the US Agency for International Development (USAID) found no proof that Hamas systematically stole US-funded humanitarian aid, according to an exclusive report by Reuters on Friday.

A total of 127 people, including 85 children, have lost their lives to starvation and malnutrition, according to the enclave’s health ministry on Saturday.

 

More than 100 aid organizations on Wednesday warned about the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, stating that "mass starvation" is spreading and that their own colleagues are suffering from severe shortages.

In a statement, the signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Save the Children, stated that "our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away."

They emphasized that aid workers themselves are now joining food lines, risking their lives to feed their families.

The organizations have called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings, and the unrestricted flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms.

Commissioner-General of the UN releif agency UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini has called for allowing unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza, noting that they have the equivalent of 6,000 trucks loaded with food and medical supplies in both Egypt and Jordan.

'Death Traps'

Meanwhile, Israel is killing starving Palestinians seeking aid for them and their families at distribution sites of the Israeli and US backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Israel had blocked aid deliveries to Gaza for nearly three months since shattering a ceasefire with Hamas in March, before being forced to resume them in May mainly through the GHF under heavy global pressure, including from its closest allies in the West.

The Gazan health ministry has called the GHF distribution sites “death traps” with the UN estimating that more than 1,000 starving Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli forces, the majority of whom were killed near these sites.

The ministry has accused the Israeli occupation and the GHF of “deliberately committing massacres against the starving in a systematic manner using various methods.”

Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday stated that the food deliveries currently are intermittent and “remain far below what is needed for the survival of the population.”

“Parents tell us their children cry themselves to sleep from hunger.”