THE few aid trucks let into Gaza are ‘ridiculously inadequate’ and nowhere near sufficient to meet Gaza’s vast needs, instead they serve as ‘a smokescreen’ for Israel to ‘pretend the siege is over’, medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said yesterday.
‘The Israeli authorities’ decision to allow a ridiculously inadequate amount of aid into Gaza after months of an air-tight siege signals their intention to avoid the accusation of starving people in Gaza, while in fact keeping them barely surviving,’ said Pascale Coissard, MSF’s emergency coordinator in Khan Younis.
Israel has approved the entry of 100 aid trucks to cross into the enclave, but no aid had actually been distributed there by yesterday afternoon due to Israeli restrictions.
The Israeli army, after three months of devastating blockade, allowed 100 humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza, but by yesterday afternoon they had not made their journey into the enclave and were still stuck at the border crossing – only five trucks had made it in.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong released a statement yesterday saying ‘the Israeli Government cannot allow the suffering to continue’ after the UN’s aid chief said thousands of babies are at risk of dying if they do not receive food imminently.
‘Australia joins international partners in calling on Israel to allow a full and immediate resumption of aid to Gaza,’ Wong said. ‘We condemn the abhorrent and outrageous comments made by members of the Netanyahu government about these people in crisis.’
The Israeli occupation army continued on Wednesday to carry out deadly attacks on different areas of the Gaza Strip, killing and injuring dozens of civilians.
Israeli forces continued to detonate more homes and displace families in the Gaza Strip, further deepening the dire humanitarian crisis as the population grapples with worsening famine.
An Israeli strike on a house in the Maan area of Khan Younis, south of Gaza, killed three people. The Israeli army massacred at least 12 civilians from three families after bombing a house belonging to the family of Abu Salah in Abasan al-Kabira town, east of Khan Younis.
Casualties also followed an Israeli attack on a house in Jorat al-Lout area in the south of Khan Younis, while at dawn, Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of strikes on homes in the east and south of Khan Younis.
Eleven civilians were killed and many others were injured when the Israeli army attacked the house of the Nabhan family in Jabalia, north of Gaza, while an Israeli airstrike targeted a house in Bani Suheila town, east of Khan Younis, killing one civilian and injuring another.
- The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported on Tuesday that 26 Palestiniains, including nine children had died in Gaza within the past 24 hours due to starvation and lack of medical care, warning that the death toll is rising at an alarming rate.
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