Israel commits to daily pauses in Gaza fighting

• Israel begins airdrops of humanitarian aid 
• More than 100 food trucks head towards southern Gaza  
• Six more people died of malnutrition in 24 hours

Israel said yesterday it would halt military operations each day for 10 hours in parts of Gaza and allow new aid corridors in the enclave, where images of hungry Palestinians have alarmed the world.

Military activity stopped from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm until further notice in Al-Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City. The military also announced designated secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine will also be in place between 6:00 am and 11:00 pm that started yesterday.

Dozens of Gazans have died of malnutrition in recent weeks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. A total of 127 people have died due to malnutrition, including 85 children, since the start of the war, the ministry said, adding that six more people have died of malnutrition in the last 24 hours.

On Saturday, a five-month-old baby died of severe acute malnutrition at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, health workers said.

"Three months inside the hospital and this is what I get in return, that she is dead," said her mother, Israa Abu Haleeb, standing next to the baby's father as he held their daughter's body, which was wrapped in a white shroud.

The Egyptian Red Crescent said it was sending more than 100 trucks carrying over 1,200 tonnes of food aid to southern Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Hours earlier, Israel began aid airdrops in what it said was an effort to ease the humanitarian conditions in the enclave.

UN teams will step up efforts to feed Palestinians in Gaza during pauses in designated areas announced by Israel, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said.

"In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window," he said in a post on X. Aid groups said last week there was mass hunger among Gaza's 2.2 million people and international alarm over the humanitarian situation in Gaza has increased.