Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday criticised a plan announced by the army that would see a daily tactical pause in fighting on one of Gaza’s main roads to allow aid to flow into the Palestinian territory.

The army had announced a daily pause from 0500 GMT to 1600 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom crossing to Salah al-Din road and then northwards.

“When the prime minister heard reports of the 11-hour humanitarian halt in the morning, he told his military secretary that this was unacceptable to him,” an Israeli official said.

The army made clear that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operations in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed on Saturday.

Netanyahu’s response underscored political tensions over the issue of aid to Gaza, where international organisations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads a nationalist religious party in Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, denounced the idea of ​​a strategic pause, saying whoever made the decision was an “idiot” who should lose his job.

Differences between the coalition and the military

The dispute was the latest in a series of clashes between coalition members and the military over the conduct of the war, which is now in its ninth month.

The incident comes a week after centrist former general Benny Gantz left the government, accusing Netanyahu of having no effective strategy in Gaza.

The differences were exposed last week in parliament during a vote on a law allowing ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the army, when Defense Minister Yoav Galant defied party orders and voted against it, saying the law was inadequate to the military’s needs.

Religious parties in the coalition have strongly opposed military recruitment for the ultra-Orthodox, sparking widespread anger among many Israelis that has grown stronger as the war has progressed.

Army chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Sunday there was a “definite need” to recruit more soldiers from the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community.

Reserve soldiers under stress

Despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, an agreement to stop fighting still appears far off, more than eight months have passed since the Israeli military launched a ground assault on the region following an attack by Hamas fighters on Israel on October 7.

Since the attack, which killed about 1,200 Israelis and foreigners living in Israeli communities, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures, Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians and destroyed much of Gaza.

Although opinion polls show that most Israelis support the government’s aim to destroy Hamas, there have been widespread protests accusing the government of not doing more to repatriate about 120 hostages taken on October 7 who are still in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians were killed in air strikes on two houses in the al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

As fighting continues in Gaza, a low-level conflict on the Israel-Lebanon border now threatens to spill over into a full-blown war, as gunfire escalates almost daily between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.

In a sign that the fighting in Gaza may continue for a long time, Netanyahu’s government said on Sunday it was extending until August 15 the period for funding hotels and guest houses for residents evacuated from southern Israeli border towns.