Israel to allow more Gaza aid, civilians should move south

JERUSALEM, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Israel would allow a dramatic increase in aid to Gaza in the coming days, an official said on Sunday, calling on Palestinian civilians to head to what he described as a “humanitarian” zone in the south of the territory.

“In the coming week we were planning to increase dramatically the amount of assistance” headed for Gaza from Egypt, said Colonel Elad Goren of Cogat, the Israeli Defence Ministry agency that coordinates with the Palestinians.

“We have mrked a humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza Strip in the Khan Younis area … we still recommend that the civilian population that evacuated will go to this zone,” he told media during an online briefing.

Goren did not say whether the humanitarian zone was new or an existing area.

Terrified Gaza residents try to reconnect as communications return

Palestinians traumatized by Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip in a bid to destroy militant group Hamas were struggling to make contact with family and friends on Sunday.

Telephone and internet communications were returning gradually to Gaza, several Palestinian media outlets said.

Israeli forces waged ground operations in Gaza in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the second phase of a three-week-old war aimed at crushing Hamas.

Gaza’s besieged residents faced a near-total communications and Internet blackout as Israel’s warplanes dropped bombs and its troops and armour pushed into the Hamas-ruled enclave, as Israeli military chiefs signalled they were gearing up for an expanded ground offensive.

Photo: Protesters hold Palestinian flags during a demonstration to support Palestine, at Place du Chatelet in Paris, France. EPA-EFE/Mohammed Badra