Israel’s Security Cabinet has decided to resume the transfer of aid into Gaza. All aid, including food, had been cut off from Gaza since March 2. 

    The office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Friday the resumption of aid transfers into the entire Gaza strip, presumably including areas under evacuation orders for Israel’s large planned ground incursion.

    Israeli sources have cited American pressure from the Trump administration, as the cause of the resumption of aid. 

    Over the course of the past week, President Donald Trump publicly commented on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. “We’re looking at Gaza…. We’re going to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving,” the president told reporters Friday. 

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio also commented on the situation this previous week, stating that the U.S. “is not immune or in any way insensitive to the suffering of the people of Gaza” while speaking to reporters in Turkey on Thursday.

    The decision was allegedly opposed by many members of the Israeli security cabinet. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s hardline minister of national security and a member of the Kahanist “Jewish Power” party, allegedly initially refused to resume aid and wanted to put the matter to a vote but was overruled by the chief of the national security council, Tzachi Hanegbi, a longtime Netanyahu loyalist.

    Current polling suggests that 68 percent of Israelis favor a hostage deal with Hamas and an end to the conflict, while only 22 percent favor a continuation of the war.