IDF to air drop aid to Gaza, pause fighting in populated areas

Israel’s military to observe one-sided daily “tactical pauses” in heavily populated parts of the Gaza Strip to facilitate the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s military has announced it will be dropping humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip by air, while also observing unilateral daily tactical ceasefires in densely populated areas to facilitate the transfer of relief to Gazans.

On Saturday night, an IDF spokesperson issued a statement regarding Israel’s plans to use its own air force to transfer humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, marking the first time Israel itself has directly transported aid into the coastal enclave.

The first Israeli aid airdrop was conducted on Saturday night.

According to the spokesperson, the airdrops are part of a broader effort by Israel to both “improve the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip” and to “refute the false claim of deliberate starvation in Gaza.”

The airdrops are being conducted by the Israel Air Force and the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories (COGAT), in coordination with international relief groups.

The first airdrop included seven shipping pallets of humanitarian aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food supplied by international organizations.

In the past, Israel has permitted third-party states, including the United States, to fly transport aircraft into the Gaza aerial corridor to drop aid packages. However, Israel’s military did not take part in the past aid drops.

Along with the aid drops, the IDF announced Sunday that it will be observing unilateral “tactical pauses” in high-density urban areas in Gaza every day, for 10 hours a day, to enable Gazans to more easily collect incoming humanitarian aid.

The local “tactical pauses” will be observed from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day in areas where the IDF is not currently operating, including the Bedouin village of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza – which has been used as a humanitarian safe zone to accommodate internally displaced Gazans – as well as Gaza City in the north and Deir al-Balah in the center.

In addition, Israel has demarcated “secure routes,” which will be open for relief trucks daily from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., “allowing for the safe movement of UN and aid organization convoys, facilitating the entry and distribution of food and medicine to the population throughout the Gaza Strip.”

The new policies come following threats by the European Union to impose sanctions on Israel, should it fail to take steps to facilitate the expansion of aid distribution in Gaza and easing of conditions for Gazans seeking aid.

Israel has faced criticism from the EU and United Nations over its reliance on the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to distribute aid to Gazans.

The GHF, founded to provide an alternative to conventional aid distribution networks that have been targeted by Hamas looters, hands out aid at four depots within the IDF security perimeter in Gaza, requiring Gazans to make their way to the depots on a regular basis.