US downplays Gaza aid chaos and blames Hamas for issues
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce has downplayed the chaos earlier today at an Israeli-US food distribution initiative, blaming Hamas for the situation in Gaza.
“All of this could have stopped if [Hamas] had released the hostages and laid down its weapons, but they’ve refused to do so. They’ve also rejected ceasefires,” she said at a news conference.
“Hamas has been opposed to this [aid] dynamic, they have attempted to stop the aid movement through Gaza to this distribution centres, but they have failed … In that kind of environment it’s not surprising that there might be a few issues involved. But the good news is that those seeking to get aid to the people of Gaza, which is not Hamas, have succeeded.”
Journalists at the news conference challenged these claims, saying that there was no evidence that Hamas had attempted to obstruct the aid.
Bruce responded by saying the aid delivery will improve over time and needs to expand, and that while she says she doesn’t speak for the initiative, it’s “clear that the goal was to reach as many people as possible”.
“The real story is that aid and food is moving into Gaza in a massive scale, we’re looking at 8,000 boxes [today],” she said. “Was this going to be like going to the mall or a drive-thru? No it wasn’t. This is a complicated environment and the story is the fact that it’s working.”
8,000 boxes at 40 pounds each (maybe, they don't look heavy at all), that's 8 trucks at most. And a lot wasted on packaging, not comparable to 20kg bags of flower and rice, or bakeries making bread at mass scale etc. GHF massive scale, load of bollocks. 500-600 trucks are needed daily.
Bruce’s UN criticism rings hollow amid Israel’s blockade on Gaza
Then other significant point that Tammy Bruce, the state department spokesperson, raised in her news conference was essentially dismissing all the criticism from the UN and UN-related humanitarian offices that have been providing humanitarian aid inside Gaza for decades.
The criticism from Tammy Bruce is essentially that they are not involved, they couldn’t find a way to deliver the aid without it falling into the hands of Hamas or other “bad actors”, and they are now upset that they’ve been left on the sidelines while people are being helped.
It is important to point out however that a humanitarian blockade was imposed by Israel back on March 2, we’re nearly entering the fourth month of that ongoing blockade along with the return to warfare by the Israeli military on the people of Gaza.
So without the Israeli government allowing humanitarian organisations to get into Gaza, you now have a situation that we’ve seen in the videos where you’ve got people basically rushing through a very small checkpoint trying to get their hands on food and medicines and other supplies that they so desperately need, and doing so because they are watching their relatives get sick and die every single day.
Israel PM acknowledges ‘loss of control momentarily’ at Gaza aid centre
Israel’s prime minister said there was a “loss of control momentarily” when crowds of Palestinians rushed into a new aid centre in Gaza.
“We worked out a plan with our American friends to have controlled distribution sites where an American company would distribute the food to Palestinian families … There was some loss of control momentarily. Happily, we brought it back under control,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech.
What? They had to evacuate the contractors while leaving the food parcels for people to grab. You didn't bring it back under control, you fled the scene...
Witness describes ‘frightening’ chaos at Gaza aid facility
We’ve been reporting on the pandemonium that erupted as hungry Palestinians stormed a food distribution centre operated by an Israel-US-backed foundation in southern Gaza. According to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, normal operations have now resumed following the disturbing incident.
“I was standing in the line at an aid distribution point in Rafah with hundreds of citizens, and suddenly a large number of people started pushing and entering randomly,” said war-displaced person Ayman Abu Zaid.
“It was because of the lack of aid and the delay in distribution so they tried to get in to take whatever they could.”
At one point gunfire rang out. “The sound was very frightening and people began to scatter, but some still kept trying to take the aid despite the danger.”
