GAZA STRIP: Just hours after the US warned of a dramatic change in course regarding its stance on Israel’s war against Hamas, Israel declared on Friday that it will permit “temporary” aid supplies into the famine-threatened northern Gaza.
After almost six months of fighting, Germany declared on Friday that Israel had “no more excuses” to postpone the arrival of aid.
In Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, the health ministry announced that at least 54 more people had died as a result of Israeli strikes the day before.
The safety of civilians and relief workers in Gaza is the first indication of potential restrictions to Washington’s military backing for Israel, US President Joe Biden informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a heated 30-minute phone chat on Thursday.
The US had warned of a drastic change in policy regarding the killings of civilians and relief workers.
Israel declared it will allow more humanitarian routes into the coastal Palestinian region it had placed under siege at the beginning of the war, almost six months ago, just hours later, during the night in Jerusalem.
According to Netanyahu’s administration, “Israel will allow the temporary delivery of humanitarian aid” via the Ashdod Port and the Erez land border, in addition to enhanced supplies from neighboring Jordan at the Kerem Shalom crossing.
The health ministry in Gaza reports that Israel’s military operation in the region has killed at least 33,091 people, and the UN has issued a warning about “catastrophic” famine.
“Not acceptable”
Since January, Oxfam, a humanitarian organization, reports that Palestinians in northern Gaza have consumed an average of only 245 calories per day, or less than a can of beans.
supplies organizations have accused Israel of obstructing supplies, but Israel has refuted these accusations, blaming shortages on the incapacity of humanitarian agencies to deliver aid once it reaches them.
An Israeli strike this week that claimed the lives of seven humanitarian workers—a Pole, an Australian, a Briton, a North American, a Palestinian, and a North American—emphasized the hazardous nature of trying to stop a famine.
In remarks that were published on Friday in the British publication The Guardian, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that Netanyahu’s first response to the murders was “deeply insensitive.”
According to the Israeli leader, “it happens in war.” He promised to conduct an investigation “right to the end” and claimed the fatalities were inadvertent.
According to Wong, Australia “will not tolerate any insinuation that this is merely a wartime incident that should be ignored.”
According to a White House account, during his conversation with Netanyahu, Biden “made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action” to ameliorate the humanitarian situation.
Biden has been under pressure from allies to use Washington’s billion-dollar military aid package.
In a post on the social media site X, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stated that Gazans “need every aid package now.” We anticipate that the Israeli government will act swiftly on its pronouncements.
Following the presidents’ phone conversation, US Ambassador to the UN Antony Blinken warned reporters that “changes in our own policy will follow if we don’t see the changes that we need to see.” He didn’t go into detail.
The horrific attack on the World Central Kitchen employees, according to Pentagon commander Lloyd Austin, “reinforced the expressed concern over a potential Israeli military operation in Rafah,” the southern city of Gaza.
“No guidelines”
With the hospital system collapsing, a large portion of Gaza turned to ruins, and a humanitarian disaster resulting from relentless Israeli shelling, all 2.4 million Palestinians are “experiencing acute food insecurity and malnutrition,” according to a World Bank assessment released on Tuesday.
Following Israel’s killing of World Central Kitchen staff, prominent international charity agencies, including Oxfam and Save the Children, stated that assistance work in Gaza has become nearly impossible despite the acute need.
Following the strike, the Spanish non-governmental organization Open Arms, which was collaborating with World Central Kitchen to create a marine assistance corridor, declared it was going to halt its activities.
