<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/israel" rel="" target="" title="Israel's"><span>Israel's</span></a><span> military announced that airdrops of aid would begin on Saturday night in </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/gaza" rel="" target="" title="Gaza"><span>Gaza</span></a><span>, and humanitarian corridors will be established for United Nations convoys, after increasing accounts of starvation-related deaths.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The statement late on Saturday followed months of experts' warnings of famine amid Israeli restrictions on aid.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>International criticism, including by close allies, has grown as several hundred Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying to reach food distribution sites.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/israel-gaza-hamas-war-anthony-albanese-wont-join-france-formally-recognising-palestine/1b3d9f30-3d7b-441b-9816-8673fb5437aa"><strong><span>Anthony Albanese won't join France in recognising state of Palestine</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/israel-intercepts-gazabound-aid-ship-handala/6a4463bd-5654-4426-ab43-abbc962c7aa3"><strong><span>Israel intercepts Gaza-bound aid ship Handala</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The military statement did not say where the airdrops or humanitarian corridors would be.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It also said the military is prepared to implement humanitarian pauses in densely populated areas. </span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/israels-military-says-airdrops-of-aid-will-begin-saturday-night-in-gaza-as-hunger-grows/6ed5f80f-ddd5-4c75-9d93-91da5c125b47" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israel's foreign ministry said late on Saturday the humanitarian pauses would start on Sunday in "civilian centres" along with humanitarian corridors.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The military "emphasises that combat operations have not ceased" in Gaza against Hamas, and it asserted there is "no starvation" in the territory, where most of the population of over two million has been displaced into a shrinking area with little infrastructure. The majority of people rely on aid.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Later, the Israeli military released video footage of what it said were airdrops in coordination with international organisations and led by COGAT, the Israeli defence agency in charge of aid coordination in the Palestinian territory.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It said the drop included seven packages of aid containing flour, sugar and canned food.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Witness accounts from Gaza have been grim. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Some health workers are so weakened by hunger that they put themselves on IV drips to keep treating the badly malnourished. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Parents have shown their limp and emaciated children. Wounded men have described desperate dashes for aid under gunfire.</span></div></div><div class="tweet" data-tweet-id="1949191514653118605" data-user="9NewsAUS"></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The military statement said airdrops would be conducted in coordination with international aid organisations. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It was not clear where they would be carried out. And it wasn't clear what role the recently created and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — meant as an alternate to the UN aid system — might play. GHF chair Johnnie Moore in a statement said the group stood ready to assist.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>At least 53 killed</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israeli airstrikes and gunshots killed at least 53 people in Gaza overnight and into Saturday, most of them shot dead while seeking aid, according to Palestinian health officials and the local ambulance service.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Deadly Israeli gunfire was reported twice close to the Zikim crossing with Israel in the north. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In the first incident, at least a dozen people waiting for aid trucks were killed, said staff at Shifa hospital, where bodies were taken. Israel's military said it fired warning shots to distance a crowd "in response to an immediate threat".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A witness, Sherif Abu Aisha, said people started running when they saw a light that they thought was from aid trucks, but as they got close, they realized it was Israel's tanks. That's when the army started firing, he told </span><em><span>The Associated Press</span></em><span>. He said his uncle was among those killed.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We went because there is no food ... and nothing was distributed," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>On Saturday evening, Israeli forces killed at least 11 people and wounded 120 others when they fired toward crowds who tried to get food from an entering UN convoy, Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiyah, director of Shifa hospital, told the AP.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We are expecting the numbers to surge in the next few hours," he said. There was no immediate military comment.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>AP video showed a group of weary Palestinian men carrying a body along with sacks of flour. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>They said he was hit by a truck but had no details. "You die to fetch some food for your children," said one man, Fayez Abu Riyala, thin and sweating.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In the southern city of Khan Younis, Israeli forces shot dead at least nine people trying to get aid entering through the Morag corridor, according to the hospital's morgue records. There was no immediate military comment.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Elsewhere, those killed in strikes included four people in an apartment building in Gaza City and at least eight, including four children, in the crowded tent camp of Muwasi in Khan Younis, hospitals said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Turning to airdrops, with a warning</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The airdrops were requested by neighbouring Jordan, and a Jordanian official said they mainly will drop food and milk formula. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The United Arab Emirates said airdrops would start "immediately". Britain said it plans to work with partners to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, warned that airdrops are "expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians" and won't reverse the increasing starvation or prevent aid diversion.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While Israel's army has said it allows aid into the enclave with no limit on the trucks that can enter, the UN says it is hampered by military restrictions on its movements and criminal looting. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Hamas-run police had provided security for aid delivery, but it has been unable to operate after being targeted by airstrikes.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israel on Saturday said over 250 trucks carrying aid from the UN and other organizations entered Gaza this week. About 600 trucks entered per day during the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israel faces growing international pressure. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>More than two dozen Western-aligned countries and over 100 charity and human rights groups have called for an end to the war, harshly criticizing Israel's blockade and a new aid delivery model it has rolled out.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>More than 1000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near the new aid sites run by the GHF, an American contractor, the UN human rights office says.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The charities and rights groups said their own staff struggled to get enough food.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Inside Gaza, children with no preexisting conditions have begun to starve to death.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We only want enough food to end our hunger," said Wael Shaaban at a charity kitchen in Gaza City as he tried to feed his family of six.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Meanwhile, an activist boat from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition trying to reach Gaza with aid, the Handala, livestreamed video showing Israeli forces boarding around midnight.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement on X that the navy stopped a vessel it identified as the Navarn from entering Palestinian territorial waters off the Gaza coast. It said the vessel was safely making its way to Israeli shores and all the passengers were safe.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Unauthorised attempts to breach the blockade are dangerous, unlawful, and undermine ongoing humanitarian efforts," the ministry said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Stalled ceasefire talks</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas were at a standstill after the US and Israel recalled negotiating teams on Thursday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his government was considering "alternative options" to talks.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A Hamas official, however, said negotiations were expected to resume next week and called the delegations' recall a pressure tactic.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Egypt and Qatar, which mediate alongside the United States, said talks would resume but did not say when.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Our loved ones do not have time for another round of negotiations, and they will not survive another partial deal," said Zahiro Shahar Mor, nephew of hostage Avraham Munder, one of 50 still in Gaza from Hamas' attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war. Mor spoke at a weekly rally in Tel Aviv.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>More than 59,700 Palestinians have been killed during the war, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Its count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says that more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.</span></div></div>