Israel allows aid convoys to Gaza
Given the catastrophic situation of people in the embattled Gaza Strip, Israel is under increasing international pressure to allow more land aid deliveries. On instructions from the government in Jerusalem, a convoy of six trucks carrying World Food Program (WFP) aid was allowed to drive along a new Israeli military road north of the closed coastal strip, as the army confirmed. Telegram Tuesday evening. It was a pilot project to prevent the aid supplies from falling into the hands of the Islamist Hamas. The results will now be presented to the government, the military said. Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell complained to the UN Security Council about a blockage of aid deliveries. Without mentioning Israel by name, he said Tuesday before the highest UN body in New York: “Hunger is being used as a weapon of war.”
Current developments in the live ticker:
Media: Netanyahu angry over negative US intelligence report
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deeply angered by a US intelligence report that raises the prospect of his impending demise, according to a media report. The head of government is foaming with anger, news channel Channel 12 reported on Tuesday evening.
In their report published the day before, the US secret services expressed expectations that the Israeli population had lost confidence in Netanyahu’s leadership skills and would organize mass protests demanding his resignation and new elections. Netanyahu will therefore seek “a strong, public and dramatic confrontation” with US President Joe Biden, Channel 12 said, citing unnamed senior officials.
On Tuesday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office sent a strong statement from a top government representative, who was also not named, to Israeli media. “Israel is not a protectorate of the US, but an independent and democratic country whose citizens are the ones who choose the government,” the report said. “We expect our friends to take down the Hamas terror regime and not the elected government in Israel.” The US is Israel’s most important ally. However, US President Biden has recently increasingly openly criticized Netanyahu for the large number of civilian casualties in Gaza and for preventing sufficient humanitarian aid.
The UN is calling for more aid by truck
The United Nations has also recently called for an expansion of aid deliveries by truck and the movement of goods through border crossings to the particularly affected north of the Palestinian territory. The World Food Program announced that the first successful northbound convoy since February 20 was able to deliver food to 25,000 people in Gaza city along the new military road on Tuesday evening. The route runs from the Mediterranean coast to the Israeli border at Kibbutz Beeri, which was attacked on October 7 during the massacre carried out by terrorists from the Islamist Hamas and other extremist groups in Israel. The massacre sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.
As people in the north of the small coastal region are on the brink of famine, deliveries are needed every day, the WFP said on Tuesday. On the same day, the ship “Open Arms” left Cyprus for Gaza. It tows a platform with about 200 tons of drinking water, medicines and food. It is still unclear where and how the cargo for the Gaza Strip will be unloaded and how it will be distributed. However, maritime transports of aid to the Gaza Strip cannot compensate for the lack of urgently needed truck deliveries, a United Nations spokesperson said.
The German air force is also expected to drop aid supplies over the Gaza Strip
The recent airdrops of aid do not change this. Nevertheless, the federal government is preparing to deploy the air force to drop urgently needed aid over Gaza. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has submitted a formal request to the Ministry of Defense, the Spiegel reported on Tuesday. The military has confirmed appropriate preparations involving the use of Bundeswehr C130 transport aircraft based in France.
Israel is defending itself against criticism over the catastrophic supply situation in the Gaza Strip. The government explained that even more aid supplies are currently arriving in the closed coastal strip than before the start of the war. A United Nations spokesman said it was not enough to count the trucks passing through the border posts. According to information from the UN, the problem lies in the distribution of goods within the war zone. According to the UN Emergency Relief Office in Okha, around February only half of all planned aid convoys reached the areas they were intended for. Israeli support was lacking for the other deliveries. The distribution requires coordination with the Israeli army.
“Red line” in Gaza war: Biden adviser dismisses speculation
The White House, meanwhile, rejected reports of possible political fallout in the event of an Israeli ground offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan responded Tuesday to media reports that Biden would consider making further military aid to Israel conditional in such a case. These reports were based on “uninformed speculation” from anonymous sources, Sullivan said. Biden called Israel’s possible Rafah offensive a “red line” last weekend. In Rafah, 1.5 million Palestinians are currently seeking protection from the fighting in other parts of the Gaza Strip, in a limited space and in appalling conditions.
Biden’s security adviser again criticized the mind games of the Israeli leadership. “A military operation in Rafah that fails to protect the civilian population, that cuts off major arteries of humanitarian aid and that puts enormous pressure on the Israeli-Egyptian border” is not something the U.S. government can support, Sullivan said. “We are talking to the Israelis about it,” he emphasized. But the real question is what happens on the ground, not what is exchanged in the public sphere. (sda/dpa/con)
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
