Israel says it will allow a ‘basic quantity’ of food into Gaza to prevent starvation

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel says it will allow a “basic quantity” of food into Gaza after a nearly three-month ban in order to prevent mass starvation, as the Israeli military pressed on with a new ground operation in the territory.

Palestinian health officials said more than 100 people, including many women and children, were killed in Israeli strikes since the new offensive began Sunday.

“We have planes striking, artillery hitting near us, tanks invading,” said Wael Al-Kilani, a Palestinian man escaping northern Gaza, where the Israeli military was dropping leaflets calling on residents to flee. “The bombing is very, very violent.”

The intensified assault in Gaza is taking place as Hamas and Israel said they were holding ceasefire talks, their most serious negotiations in months.

Israel says it has targeted hundreds of Hamas sites and killed dozens of militants, and is vowing to gradually expand its offensive to increase military pressure on Hamas.

Israel’s prime minister faces right-wing criticism for resuming aid

Israel had blocked all food, medicine and supplies into Gaza for nearly three months, the longest ever total blockade it has ever imposed on Gaza, seeking to pressure Hamas and to create a new aid distribution system to isolate the militant group from access to the aid.

But Israel is relenting amid international pressure to allow food into the territory. A United Nations-backed group of experts on hunger said there was a risk of famine in Gaza.

Responding to right-wing Israeli protest over the sudden about-face in Israel’s aid blockade, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video that U.S. senators, whom he did not name, told him they would not be able to continue giving Israel military and diplomatic support if there was mass starvation in Gaza.

“We are going to take control of the entire Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu said. “We need to do it in a way that they won’t stop us.”

The U.N. said in a statement that it has been approached by Israel to resume “limited aid delivery” and was in talks with Israel about how it would take place.

Netanyahu said Israel would temporarily allow the delivery of aid until a new U.S.-led initiative begins aid distribution in Israeli military-secured zones.

New U.S. aid group aims to begin food delivery by May 24

Jake Wood, an American military veteran running the U.S. initiative, called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, told NPR the group aimed to begin distributing basic food supplies by May 24 in southern and central Gaza, with plans to expand to north Gaza.

The United Nations and its partner aid groups, which have run aid distribution in Gaza throughout the war, said they would refuse to participate in the new aid initiative, calling it an Israeli plan to weaponize aid for military purposes. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says it would operate according to humanitarian principles.

In order to receive aid under a proposed Israeli plan, Gaza’s population would be forced to move south in a new zone cordoned off by Israel’s military to prevent Hamas members from access to aid, Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said Monday.

Smotrich said the food and medicine being allowed into Gaza now was only the “bare minimum.”

NPR’s Anas Baba reported from Gaza City.