• 52 more Palestinians killed in attacks across territory
• WHO says two million people starving due to blockade
• Britain, Canada, France condemn ‘egregious actions’

GAZA CITY: Israel said on Monday it will “take control” of the whole of Gaza, where aid entered for the first time in more than two months as rescuers reported dozens killed in a newly intensified offensive.

With the Gaza Strip under a total Israeli blockade since March 2, the World Health Organisation said the besieged territory’s “two million people are starving”.

The leaders of Britain, France and Canada condemned Israel’s “egregious actions” in Gaza, opposed its expanded offensive and aid blockage, and slammed Israeli ministers for threatening the mass displacement of civilians.

“We will not stand by” while the government of Benjamin Netanyahu pursues those actions, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a joint statement.

Israel, facing mounting criticism over the humanitarian crisis, has announced it would let limited aid into Gaza and said the first five trucks entered on Monday, carrying supplies “including food for babies”.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement that nine trucks had been “cleared to enter… but it is a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.”

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who was unable to confirm the exact number of trucks inside Gaza, said that “none of the aid has been picked up” at a designated zone as it was “already dark” and due to “security concerns, we cannot operate in those conditions”.

Prime Minister Netanyahu cited “practical and diplomatic reasons” for the resumption of aid, saying that “images of mass starvation” could harm the legitimacy of Israel’s war effort.

In southern Gaza, the Israeli military issued an evacuation call to Palestinians in and around Khan Yunis city ahead of what it described as an “unprecedented attack”.

The call came after the military announced it had begun “extensive ground operations” in an expanded offensive against Hamas fighters.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said 52 people had been killed in Israeli attacks on Monday across the territory.

Netanyahu, in a video posted on Telegram, said that “the fighting is intense and we are making progress”. “We will take control of all the territory of the strip,” the Israeli leader added.

The UN’s OHCHR rights office decried actions that are “in defiance of international law and tantamount to ethnic cleansing”, citing the latest attacks, displacement, the “methodical destruction of entire neighbourhoods” and denial of humanitarian aid.

Netanyahu on Monday said that Israel “will not give up. But in order to succeed, we must act in a way that cannot be stopped”, justifying to his hardline supporters the decision to resume aid.

Famine risk

Israel said its blockade was aimed at forcing concessions from Hamas, while UN agencies have warned of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.

“Tonnes of food is blocked at the border, just minutes away”, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid.”

Last week, US President Donald Trump acknowledged that “a lot of people are starving”, adding “, we’re going to get that taken care of”.

A group of 22 mostly European countries, including France and Germany, said in a joint statement on Monday that Gaza’s population “faces starvation” and “must receive the aid they desperately need”.

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir argued against any resumption of aid, saying on X that “our hostages receive no humanitarian aid”.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also of the far right, defended the decision, stressing no supplies would be allowed to reach Hamas.

“This will allow civilians to eat and our friends in the world to keep giving us diplomatic protection,” he said.

Israel’s military said on Monday it had struck 160 targets in Gaza over the past day.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2025