UN to use 'humanitarian pauses' to try to reach Gaza's starving

The United Nations said it would try to reach as many starving people as possible in Gaza after Israel announced it would establish secure land routes in for humanitarian convoys.

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The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said it had enough food in, or on its way to, the region to feed the 2.1 million people in the Gaza Strip for almost three months.

UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher said on X he welcomed the announcement of "humanitarian pauses."

"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. WFP said the pauses and corridors should allow emergency food to be safely delivered.

"Food aid is the only real way for most people inside Gaza to eat," it said in a statement.

It said a third of the population had not been eating for days, and 470,000 people in Gaza "are enduring famine-like conditions" that were leading to deaths.

WFP said more than 62,000 tonnes of food assistance was needed monthly to cover the entire Gaza population of two million. The agency noted that, on top of Sunday's "pause" announcement, Israel had pledged to allow more trucks to enter Gaza with quicker clearances along with "assurances of no armed forces or shootings near convoys."