The Israeli military will provide Gaza residents with tents and other equipment starting from Sunday ahead of relocating them from combat zones to "safe" ones in the south of the enclave, military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on Saturday.
This comes days after Israel said it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of northern Gaza City, the enclave's largest urban centre, in a plan that raised international alarm over the fate of the demolished strip, home to about 2.2 million people.
The equipment will be transferred via the Israeli crossing of Kerem Shalom by the UN and other international relief organisations after being thoroughly inspected by defence ministry personnel, Adraee added in a post on X.
"As part of the preparations to move the population from combat zones to the southern Gaza Strip for their protection, the supply of tents and shelter equipment to Gaza will resume," Israel's COGAT, the military agency that coordinates aid, said in a statement.
Hostage families call for 'nationwide day of stoppage'
Meanwhile, anxious families of Israeli hostages called for a “nationwide day of stoppage” in Israel on Sunday to express growing frustration over 22 months of war.
Families of hostages fear the coming offensive further endangers the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, just 20 of them thought to still be alive. They and other Israelis were horrified by the recent release of videos showing emaciated hostages speaking under duress and pleading for help and food.
The families and supporters have pressed the government for a deal to stop the war — a call that some former Israeli army and intelligence chiefs have made as well in recent weeks.
A group representing the families has urged Israelis into the streets on Sunday. “Across the country, hundreds of citizen-led initiatives will pause daily life and join the most just and moral struggle: the struggle to bring all 50 hostages home,” it said in a statement.
“I want to believe that there is hope, and it will not come from above, it will come only from us,” said Dana Silberman Sitton, sister of Shiri Bibas and aunt of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were killed in captivity. She spoke at a weekly rally in Tel Aviv.
Israeli attacks kill 39 people
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli attacks killed at least 39 people on Saturday, warning that intensifying strikes on a Gaza City neighbourhood were placing its remaining residents in mortal danger.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said conditions in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood were rapidly deteriorating with residents having little to no access to food and water amid heavy Israeli bombardment.
He said that about 50,000 people were estimated to be in that area of Gaza City, "the majority of whom are without food or water" and lacking "the basic necessities of life".
In Gaza's southern Muwasi area, an Israeli airstrike killed a baby girl and her parents on Saturday, Nasser hospital officials and witnesses said. Motasem al-Batta, his wife and the girl were killed in their tent.
“Two-and-a-half months, what has she done?" neighbour Fathi Shubeir asked, sweating as temperatures in the shattered territory soared above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). “They are civilians in an area designated safe.”
Israel's military said it couldn't comment on the strike without more details. It said it is dismantling Hamas’ military capabilities and takes precautions not to harm civilians.
Muwasi is one of the heavily populated areas in Gaza where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel plans to widen the coming military offensive.
The United Nations is warning that levels of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at their highest since the war began. Palestinians are drinking contaminated water as diseases spread, while some Israeli leaders continue to talk openly about the mass relocation of people from Gaza.
A 20-year old Palestinian woman described as being in a “state of severe physical deterioration” died Friday after being transferred from Gaza to Italy for treatment, the hospital said Saturday.
The October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 61,897 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which does not specify how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
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