Israeli Military Announces 'Tactical Pause' in Attempt to Increase Flow of Aid Into Hard-Hit Gaza

Jerusalem: Israeli military on Sunday announced a “tactical pause” in its offensive in sourn Gaza Strip to allow deliveries of increased quantities of humanitarian aid.

army said pause would begin in Rafah area at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT, 1 a.m. eastern) and remain in effect until 7 p.m. (1600 GMT, noon eastern). It said pauses would take place every day until furr notice.

pause is aimed at allowing aid trucks to reach nearby Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, main entry point for incoming aid, and travel safely to Salah a-Din highway, a main north-south ro, to deliver supplies to or parts of Gaza, military said. It said pause was being coordinated with U.N. and international aid agencies.

crossing has suffered from a bottleneck since Israeli ground troops moved into Rafah in early May.

Israel's eight-month military offensive against Hamas militant group has plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis, with U.N. reporting widespre hunger and hundreds of thousands of people on brink of famine. international community has urged Israel to do more to ease crunch.

From May 6 until June 6, U.N. received an average of 68 trucks of aid a day, according to figures from U.N. humanitarian office, known as OCHA. That was down from 168 a day in April and far below 500 trucks a day that aid groups say are needed.

flow of aid in sourn Gaza declined just as humanitarian need grew. More than 1 million Palestinians, many of whom h alrey been displaced, fled Rafah after invasion, crowding into or parts of sourn and central Gaza. Most now languish in ramshackle tent camps, using trenches as latrines, with open sewage in streets.

COGAT, Israeli military body that oversees aid distribution in Gaza, says re are no restrictions on entry of trucks. It says more than 8,600 trucks of all kinds, both aid and commercial, entered Gaza from all crossings from May 2 to June 13, an average of 201 a day. But much of that aid has piled up at crossings and not reached its final destination.

A spokesman for COGAT, Shimon Freedman, said it was U.N.'s fault that its cargos stacked up on Gaza side of Kerem Shalom. He said agencies have “fundamental logistical problems that y have not fixed,” especially a lack of trucks.

U.N. denies such allegations. It says fighting between Israel and Hamas often makes it too dangerous for U.N. trucks inside Gaza to travel to Kerem Shalom, which is right next to Israel's border.

It also says pace of deliveries has been slowed because Israeli military must authorize drivers to travel to site, a system Israel says was designed for drivers' safety. Due to a lack of security, aid trucks in some cases have also been looted by crowds as y moved along Gaza's ros.

new arrangement aims to reduce need for coordinating deliveries by providing an 11-hour uninterrupted window each day for trucks to move in and out of crossing.

It was not immediately clear wher army would provide security to protect aid trucks as y move along highway.