A Palestinian child walks in front of a destroyed home by Israeli warplanes in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, June 16, 2024. /CFP
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized plans announced by the military on Sunday to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave.
The military had announced the daily pauses from 0500 GMT until 1600 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards.
"When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him," an Israeli official told Reuters.
The military clarified that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed on Saturday.
The reaction from Netanyahu underlined political tensions over the issue of aid coming into Gaza, where international organizations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads one of the nationalist religious parties in Netanyahu's ruling coalition, denounced the idea of a tactical pause, saying whoever decided it was a "fool" who should lose their job.
The spat was the latest in a series of clashes between members of the coalition and the military over the conduct of the Israel-Hamas conflict, now in its ninth month.
It came a week after centrist former general Benny Gantz quit the government, accusing Netanyahu of having no effective strategy in Gaza.
Lebanese civil defense firefighters and residents douse a fire resulting from Israeli military shelling in the village of Shebaa, close to the southern Lebanese border with Israel, June 14, 2024. /CFP
As fighting in Gaza has continued, a lower level conflict across the Israel-Lebanon border is now threatening to spiral into a wider one as near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have escalated.
Last week, Hezbollah launched the largest volleys of rockets and drones yet in the eight months it has been exchanging fire with the Israeli military, in parallel with the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
After the relatively heavy exchanges over the past week, Sunday saw a marked drop in Hezbollah's fire, while the Israeli military said that it had carried out several air strikes against the group in southern Lebanon.
A woman was killed, and six other civilians, including children, were injured on Sunday in Israeli airstrikes on villages in southern Lebanon, Lebanese medical and military sources told Xinhua.
"Israel will take the necessary measures to protect its civilians – until security along our border with Lebanon is restored," Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement.
In a further sign that fighting in Gaza could drag on, Netanyahu's government said on Sunday it was extending until August 15 the period it would fund hotels and guest houses for residents evacuated from southern Israeli border towns.
(With input from agencies)