NAHARIYA, Israel (AP) \u2014 Israel announced Saturday that it is preparing to move Palestinians from combat zones to southern Gaza as plans move ahead for a military offensive in some of the territory\u2019s most populated areas. <\/p>\n
The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, COGAT, said the supply of tents and other shelter equipment to the territory would resume on Sunday ahead of the mass movement of Palestinians to the south. The military said it had no comment on when that movement would begin.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, anxious families of Israeli hostages called for a \u201cnationwide day of stoppage\u201d in Israel on Sunday to express growing frustration over 22 months of war<\/a>.<\/p>\n Families of hostages fear the coming offensive further endangers the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, just 20 of them thought to still be alive. They and other Israelis were horrified by the recent release of videos showing emaciated hostages<\/a> speaking under duress and pleading for help and food.<\/p>\n The families and supporters have pressed the government for a deal to stop the war \u2014 a call that some former Israeli army and intelligence chiefs<\/a> have made as well in recent weeks.<\/p>\n A group representing the families has urged Israelis into the streets on Sunday. \u201cAcross the country, hundreds of citizen-led initiatives will pause daily life and join the most just and moral struggle: the struggle to bring all 50 hostages home,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to believe that there is hope, and it will not come from above, it will come only from us,\u201d said Dana Silberman Sitton, sister of Shiri Bibas and aunt of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were killed in captivity. She spoke at a weekly rally in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n Airstrike kills a baby girl and her parents<\/p>\n An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed a baby girl and her parents on Saturday, Nasser hospital officials and witnesses said. Motasem al-Batta, his wife and the girl were killed in their tent in the crowded Muwasi area.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo and a half months, what has she done?\u201d neighbor Fathi Shubeir asked, sweating as temperatures<\/a> in the shattered territory soared above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). \u201cThey are civilians in an area designated safe.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s military said it couldn\u2019t comment on the strike without more details. It said it is dismantling Hamas\u2019 military capabilities and takes precautions not to harm civilians.<\/p>\n Muwasi is one of the heavily populated areas in Gaza where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel plans to widen the coming military offensive<\/a>. The mobilization of forces is expected to take weeks, and Israel may be using the threat to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages taken in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, an official at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said it received the bodies of six people who were killed in the Zikim area of northern Gaza, as well as four people killed in shelling.<\/p>\n 11 more deaths related to malnutrition<\/p>\n Another 11 malnutrition-related deaths occurred in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the territory\u2019s Health Ministry said Saturday, with one child among them. That brings malnutrition-related deaths during the war to 251.<\/p>\n The United Nations is warning that levels of starvation and malnutrition<\/a> in Gaza are at their highest since the war began. Palestinians are drinking contaminated water<\/a> as diseases spread, while some Israeli leaders continue to talk openly about the mass relocation of people from Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n