[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
Israel/Zionism See other Israel/Zionism Articles Title: Netanyahu halts aid to northern Gaza in bid to protect govt coalition Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a halt to the entry of humanitarian aid into northern Gaza on 26 June, following pressure from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who threatened to leave the governing coalition if aid continued to reach the north of the strip. Smotrich issued the ultimatum during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, citing a video that appeared on social media showing armed men on aid trucks in Gaza. In response, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the Israeli army to present a plan within 48 hours to prevent Hamas from intercepting aid deliveries. “Hamas is once again taking over the humanitarian aid … and stealing it from civilians,” the two said in a joint statement. While aid to northern Gaza is delivered by international agencies via the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, aid to the center and southern strip is controlled by the US-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Smotrich previously declared that “this time, nothing will go to Hamas,” accusing the group of profiting from aid deliveries in the past. Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett also shared the video, claiming the armed men were Hamas operatives. However, the Israeli army has not confirmed this, Haaretz reported, and local media in Gaza stated that the gunmen were tribal security escorts protecting the convoys from looting. The video’s uploader, a local transport official, thanked “the young people from the families” who secured the route. Despite the controversy, the aid in question reportedly reached UN warehouses and was distributed to civilians. The aid delivery halt ordered by Netanyahu comes amid an escalating humanitarian crisis. Gaza’s food supply remains critically low, with humanitarian groups reporting that over 18,700 children have been hospitalized with malnutrition since the beginning of the year. In the first two weeks of June alone, 1,648 children were treated at hospitals for malnutrition. The Israeli army has also opened fire at Palestinian civilians at GHF aid distribution sites, killing hundreds. The Gaza Health Ministry reported that 519 people were killed at the sites while trying to get food in the past month, including 33 on Wednesday alone. On Sunday, the UN’s top aid official in Gaza described the “carnage” unleashed by Israeli troops on desperate Palestinians seeking aid to avoid starvation. “It is weaponized hunger. It is forced displacement. It’s a death sentence for people just trying to survive. All combined, it appears to be the erasure of Palestinian life from Gaza,” said the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Jonathan Whittall. Since the start of the war, Israeli forces have killed at least 56,156 people and injured over 132,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Other estimates of the number killed by Israel are much higher, reaching nearly 110,000 from direct violence, including 80 percent who are civilians Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
|
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|
||