USA keeps stalling, downplaying, gaslighting and lying.
White House says Gaza famine ‘imminent’; appears to soften USAID chief’s earlier comments
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has been pressed on the US assessment of famine in Gaza. Earlier, USAID chief Samantha Power said it was “credible” to assess that famine had already begun.
Jean-Pierre did not address Power’s comments directly but said repeatedly that famine conditions in parts of Gaza were “imminent”, seeming to water down Power’s assessment.
“That is why we’re doing everything we can to uptick, obviously, the humanitarian aid” arriving into Gaza, Jean-Pierre said, noting that the number of trucks carrying aid into Gaza has increased dramatically in recent days.
“We know how dire the situation is in Gaza, so we are certainly deeply concerned about these reports,” Jean-Pierre said. “We have been working around the clock, around the clock, to get more of that aid into Gaza.”
She added that the US would “continue to push Israel to increase the flow” of aid into Gaza.
The number of trucks carrying aid into Gaza has not increased at all. Israel has just begun to count half filled trucks for inspection (regulated to only be half full for inspection). After they get reloaded to go into Gaza the numbers don't match up.
Aid entering Gaza just ‘a drop in the ocean’
Despite the Israeli military announcing it would allow 500 trucks of aid into Gaza per day, the amount actually making its way into the enclave “is less than one would imagine”, reports Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud from Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
“It is only a drop in the ocean compared to the needs of people”, Mahmoud said of the aid entering Gaza, adding that people’s living conditions were deteriorating both in Rafah, where resources are “depleting”, and in northern Gaza, where the hunger crisis is “raging”.
People are suffering “not only from the ongoing bombing campaign but by the [Israeli military’s] obstruction of aid delivery”, said Mahmoud.
Israeli army says first trucks carrying aid entered Gaza via northern crossing
The Israeli army says the first trucks carrying aid entered from Israel to Gaza on Thursday through a new crossing. Reports earlier this week said the Israeli army was setting up a new crossing as an alternative to the re-opening of the Beit Hanoon (Erez) crossing in order to avoid attempts by Israeli protesters to block aid from entering the Strip.
Pressure on Israel to do more to protect civilians and humanitarian workers has been mounting, especially after the killing of seven members of the relief group World Central Kitchen in an Israeli attack.
