LISA DESJARDINS: The other major story we're following tonight is in Gaza, a temporary pause in some fighting there as Israel and the world confront mass hunger inside the territory.

The Israeli military ordered a tactical pause in three places.

Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, and Muwasi from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day until further notice.

Israel and nearby nations also resumed airdrops of food, though aid organizations say that's a dangerous method.

All this comes amid growing international outrage over starvation and deteriorating conditions on the ground.

That includes areas in Gaza where Israel continues strikes.

Gaza health officials said at least 38 died in those attacks in the last day, including many seeking aid.

Gerry Shih is the Jerusalem bureau chief for the Washington Post.

Gerry, Israel has done a few things here in addition to that pause in some places, also trying to reopen and allow more space for these humanitarian aid organizations to get food to where it needs to go.

Do we know if that is making a difference yet?

GERRY SHIH, The Washington Post: It's still early to say, Lisa, but I think that what we're hearing from U.N. officials is that they are optimistic that there will be a relaxation of the restrictions on U.N. agencies, including the World Food Programme, that many experts say are crucial to getting the amount of aid into Gaza.

Now, by many estimates the population of 2 million people.

They require about 120 trucks a day, minimum, going in to feed everybody.

At a basic level, we know that essentially for the last two months, less than half of that has been going in.

So the situation is extremely dire.

LISA DESJARDINS: Do we know if it could even be too late for some people?

I'm sorry to ask there in Gaza?

GERRY SHIH: Yeah.

So, you know, Israel says that it's been keeping close eyes and calculating the number of calories that are going in every day.

It's a grim sort of arithmetic.

But the fact is that we've basically seen 130 or so deaths, six just in the last 24 hours, being reported by Gazan health authorities.

And this is one of these things that sort of, you know, for weeks now, we've seen kind of, you know, growing reports of hunger, starvation and famine.

These are things that kind of can kind of, you know, slowly begin to take root and then suddenly explode almost in kind of an asymptotic way.

LISA DESJARDINS: President Trump was asked earlier today about this, and, you know, he said that Hamas has become a problem in talks.

And this is part of what we've seen the breakdown of talks happen, he said, over their refusal to give what Israel and America is asking for over hostages.

But he said something in addition to this.

Here's the sort of cryptic response here.

DONALD TRUMP: They had a routine discussion the other day and all of a sudden they hardened up.

They don't want to give them back.

And so Israel is going to have to make a decision.

LISA DESJARDINS: What Israel's decision?

Between what and what do you think?

GERRY SHIH: Yeah, I mean, you know, it's interesting to hear President Trump say that, but the truth is that this is kind of this repeat of what we've seen now for more than 20 months.

You know, essentially the two sides are still at loggerheads over the basic questions of whether Israel will pull out.

Now Hamas has offered that, you know, as long as Israel is willing to pull its troops and install some sort of alternate governing body for the region, they would be willing to release all of the hostages.

Now Israel, for its part, has maintained that Hamas has continued to change its demands for how many Palestinian detainees it wants to be released in exchange for the hostages.

But the basic line, I think is that, you know, I think Prime Minister Netanyahu and many of his political allies in particular are not ready at this point to end the war.

LISA DESJARDINS: Do we know how long Israel plans to put keep this pause in place in those three areas?

GERRY SHIH: It's unclear.

There have been some reports we've heard from UN officials that it may last a week.

Israeli officials we've spoken to say that, you know, as far as they're aware, you know, this will likely go on indefinitely but may also be reevaluated at any time.

LISA DESJARDINS: Gerry Shih with the Washington Post in Jerusalem.

Thank you.

GERY SHIH: Thanks very much.