Netanyahu says he has ordered ‘basic’ Gaza aid amid widened offensive and starvation concerns

JTA – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered aid to enter Gaza, days after United States President Donald Trump joined the ranks of those saying that Gazans were starving under a months-long Israeli blockade.

Israel had halted the entry of aid into Gaza since it resumed fighting there more than two months ago. Netanyahu made the order without consulting his Cabinet, whose members include far-right ministers who have opposed allowing in any aid while Israel is fighting Hamas.

The order came amid an expansion of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, meant to rout out Hamas after 19 months of war.

“On the recommendation of the Israel Defense Forces and based on the operational need to enable the expansion of the military operation to defeat Hamas, Israel will allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population in order to make certain that no starvation crisis develops in the Gaza Strip,” his office said in a statement. “Such a crisis would endanger the continuation of Operation Gideon’s Chariots to defeat Hamas.”

The statement said Israel would “act to deny Hamas’s ability to take control of the distribution of humanitarian assistance”. Israeli and US officials have both blamed Hamas for intercepting and stealing aid that previously entered the enclave.

Gaza is home to more than two million people. International aid agencies, Israeli military leaders, and US officials have all warned that the enclave is on the verge of exhausting all food supplies that previously entered, and images of emaciated, weak Gazans have circulated widely in recent days.

In recent weeks, Israel and the US have launched a new plan for aid distribution that seeks to block out Hamas, though humanitarian groups have called it insufficient.

Netanyahu didn’t specify how or how much aid would enter Gaza. The United Nations said nine aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday, 19 May.

Last October, when the Biden administration warned Israel that it would withhold weapons if more aid didn’t flow into Gaza, it set an expectation that 350 trucks per day would enter.