JERUSALEM, Oct 29 — Israel would allow a dramatic increase in aid to Gaza in the coming days, an official said today, calling on Palestinian civilians to head to what he described as a "humanitarian” zone in the south of the territory.

"In the coming week we were planning to increase dramatically the amount of assistance” headed for Gaza from Egypt, said Colonel Elad Goren of Cogat, the Israeli Defence Ministry agency that coordinates with the Palestinians.

"We have marked a humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza Strip in the Khan Younis area ... we still recommend that the civilian population that evacuated will go to this zone,” he told media during an online briefing.

Goren did not say whether the humanitarian zone was new or an existing area. — Reuters