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‘A CRUEL AND TRANSPARENT FARCE’: ISRAELI ATTACKS KILL 62 IN GAZA
AMID ‘TACTICAL PAUSE’
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Olivia Rosane
July 27, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ "There is nothing humane or tactical about letting a trickle of aid
in after a man-made famine has started while continuing to bomb
starving men, women, and children, even in so-called safe zones," one
advocate said. _
Palestinians mourn during the funeral of people who were killed while
trying to reach aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim
crossing with Israel, at Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, Saturday, July
26, 2025., (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The Israeli military began instituting tactical pauses in its assault
on certain sections of Gaza
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to allow what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described
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"minimal humanitarian supplies" to enter the besieged enclave.
Several humanitarian organizations and political leaders described the
Israeli approach as vastly insufficient at best and a dangerous
distraction at worst, as Palestinians in Gaza continue to die of
starvation that experts say
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been deliberately imposed on them by the U.S.-backed Israeli military.
"Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won't undo months of
engineered starvation in Gaza," Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam policy lead for
the Occupied Palestinian territory, said
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statement on Sunday. "What's needed is the immediate opening of all
crossings for full, unhindered, and safe aid delivery across all of
Gaza and a permanent cease-fire. Anything less risks being little more
than a tactical gesture."
Israel [[link removed]] announced a plan to
institute a daily 10-hour "tactical pause" in fighting from 10:00 am
to 8:00 pm local time in the populated Gaza localities of Gaza City,
Deir al-Balah, and Muwasi, as _The Associated Press_ explained
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However, on Sunday—the first day of the supposed pause—Israeli
attacks killed a total of 62 people, _Al Jazeera _reported
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including 34 who were seeking humanitarian relief. Another six people
died of hunger, bringing the total death toll from starvation and
malnutrition to 133, including 87 children, according to
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Gaza Health Ministry.
"The Israeli government's so-called 'tactical pauses' are a cruel and
transparent farce," said
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on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) national deputy director Edward
Ahmed Mitchell in a statement on Sunday. "There is nothing humane or
tactical about letting a trickle of aid in after a man-made famine has
started while continuing to bomb starving men, women, and children,
even in so-called safe zones. These actions are not pauses—they are
part of an ongoing genocide that the world must act to stop."
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, meanwhile, called
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pause "essential, but long overdue."
"This announcement alone cannot alleviate the needs of those
desperately suffering in Gaza," Lammy said, as _The
Guardian _reported. "We need a cease-fire that can end the war, for
hostages to be released, and aid to enter Gaza by land unhindered."
The United Nations' World Food Program posted
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it welcomed the news of the pause, as well as the creation of more
humanitarian corridors for aid, and that it had enough food supplies
either in or en route to the area to feed the entire population of
Gaza for nearly three months.
Since the border crossings opened on May 27 following nearly three
months of total siege, WFP has only been able to bring in 22,000 tons
of food aid, about a third of the over 62,000 tons of food aid needed
to feed the population of Gaza each month.
While it welcomed the pause, WFP did add that "an agreed cease-fire is
the only way for humanitarian assistance to reach the entire civilian
population in Gaza with critical food supplies in a consistent,
predictable, orderly, and safe manner—wherever they are across the
Gaza Strip."
Joe English, emergency communications specialist for UNICEF,
emphasized that the limited pauses proposed by Israel were not the
ideal conditions for treating serious malnutrition.
"This is a short turnaround in terms of the notice that we have, and
so we cannot work miracles," English told
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English explained that, while UNICEF can treat malnutrition, children
who are malnourished require a course of treatments over an extended
period of time in order to fully recover, something only truly
possible with a cease-fire, which would allow the U.N. to reestablish
the 400 aid distribution points it had set up across Gaza before the
last cease-fire ended in March.
"We have to be able to reach people and also to reach people where
they are," he said. "We can't be expecting people to continue to
traverse many miles, often on foot, through militarized areas, to get
access to aid."
In addition to bringing in food aid through trucks, Israel, Jordan,
and the United Arab Emirates all began air-dropping aid over the
weekend. However, this method has been widely criticized by
humanitarian experts as ineffective and even dangerous.
"Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are
expensive, inefficient, and can even kill starving civilians. It is a
distraction and screensmoke," U.N. Relief and Works Agency for
Palestinian Refugees in the Near East Commissioner-General Philippe
Lazzarini wrote
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media on Saturday.
"A man-made hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the
siege, open the gates, and guarantee safe movements and dignified
access to people in need," Lazzarini wrote.
Palestinians in Gaza also complained about the air drops.
"From 6:00 am until now we didn't eat or drink. We didn't get aid from
the trucks. After that, they said that planes will airdrop aid, so we
waited for that as well," Massad Ghaban told
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planes are insulting for us. We are a people who deserve dignity."
In a reminder of what is at stake in effectively delivering aid to
Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned
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"malnutrition is on a dangerous trajectory in the Gaza Strip, marked
by a spike in deaths in July."
WHO continued:
Of 74 malnutrition-related deaths in 2025, 63 occurred in
July—including 24 children under 5, a child over 5, and 38 adults.
Most of these people were declared dead on arrival at health
facilities or died shortly after, their bodies showing clear signs of
severe wasting. The crisis remains entirely preventable. Deliberate
blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid
has cost many lives.
WHO said that the search for lifesaving aid was itself deadly:
"Families are being forced to risk their lives for a handful of food,
often under dangerous and chaotic conditions. Since 27 May, more than
1,060 people have been killed and 7,200 injured while trying to access
food."
Israeli solders have reported that they had been ordered
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Palestinian civilians seeking aid.
In the face of Israel's atrocities, CAIR's Mitchell called for
decisive action: "No more statements. Our government, Western nations,
and Arab Muslim nations must act immediately to end the genocide,
allow unfettered humanitarian aid into Gaza, secure the release of all
captives and political prisoners, and hold Israeli leaders accountable
for war crimes. Every moment of inaction contributes to the
unimaginable suffering of everyone in Gaza."
_Olivia Rosane is a staff writer for Common Dreams._
* Israel-Gaza War
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* war crimes
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* famine
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