CAIRO/JERUSALEM--Israel will ease its blockade and let limited amounts of food into Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Sunday, after the military announced it had begun "extensive ground operations" in the northern and southern parts of the enclave.
Facing mounting pressure over an aid blockade it imposed in March and the risk of famine, Israel has stepped up its campaign in Gaza, where Palestinian health officials said hundreds have been killed in attacks in the past week, including 130 overnight.
"At the recommendation of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), and out of the operational need to enable the expansion of intense fighting to defeat Hamas, 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.
Eri Kaneko, a spokesperson for U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher confirmed the agency had been approached by Israeli authorities to "resume limited aid delivery," adding that discussions are ongoing about the logistics "given the conditions on the ground."
Israel made its announcement after sources on both sides said there had been no progress in a new round of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Qatar. Netanyahu said the talks included discussions on a truce and hostage deal as well as a proposal to end the war in return for the exile of Hamas militants 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. Military chief Eyal Zamir told troops in Gaza that the army would provide the country's leaders with the flexibility they need to reach a hostage deal, according to the statement.
Israel's military said it had conducted a preliminary wave of strikes on more than 670 Hamas targets in Gaza over the past week to support "Gideon's Chariots", its new ground operation aimed at achieving "operational control" in parts of the enclave. It said it killed dozens of Hamas fighters.
Gaza's Health Ministry said in the week to Sunday alone, at least 464 Palestinians were killed. "Complete families were wiped off the civil registration record by (overnight) Israeli bombardment," Khalil Al-Deqran, Gaza health ministry spokesperson, told Reuters by phone.
The Israeli campaign has devastated Gaza, pushing nearly all of its two million residents from their homes and killing more than 53,000 people, many of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.
