Israel will take all of Gaza: PM

Israel yesterday said 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 Organization said the besieged territory's "two million people are starving".

A wounded girl receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, following an Israeli airstrike that hit a school in the camp yesterday. Photo: AFP

Israel, facing mounting criticism over the humanitarian crisis, has announced it would let limited aid into Gaza and said the first five trucks entered 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 Benjamin 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.

Gaza's civil defence agency said 52 people had been killed in Israeli attacks 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 yesterday 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.

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.

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, yesterday said in a joint statement that Gaza's population "faces starvation" and "must receive the aid they desperately need".

Gaza's health ministry yesterday said at least 3,340 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,486.