BRUSSELS, Belgium, April 5, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - European Council president Charles Michel said Friday that Israel's announcement to temporarily open aid routes into Gaza was "not enough" given the scale of the humanitarian crisis there.

"Gazan children and infants are dying of malnutrition. Substantial and urgent efforts are required to immediately end hunger as an instrument of war in Gaza," Michel wrote on X.

"Israel's announcement to reopen temporarily the Erez crossing point as well as to allow aid to enter through the Ashdod port is not enough."

Israel announced on Friday that it would allow "temporary" aid deliveries into famine-threatened northern Gaza, hours after the United States warned of a potential shift in its policy over Israel's war against Hamas militants.

The bloodiest-ever Gaza war began with Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 Israelis and foreigners, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Palestinian militants also took around 250 hostages, about 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 whom the army says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 33,091 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, while the United Nations has warned of "catastrophic" hunger.