Israel again claims UN to blame for not getting aid to Gaza
The Israeli military, which has maintained a near-total blockade on the Gaza Strip since the beginning of March, has once more tried to put the blame on the UN and international aid organisations for the mass starvation of the Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of trucks filled with humanitarian aid are waiting at the Karem Abu Salem crossing (known as Kerem Shalom in Israel) in southern Gaza, the Israeli army’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said in a statement.
But the military unit said it is “awaiting collection and distribution” by international organisations after security inspections.
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which has been banned by the Israeli government, regularly reminds the world that it has enough food to feed Gaza for three months waiting in trucks and warehouses just beyond the borders of the Strip, but that Israel refuses to allow the aid in.
This is while Israel and the US continue their efforts to remove the UN and other humanitarian groups from the aid system in Gaza, instead using the GHF. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed at or near GHF sites by Israeli forces as they tried to pick up food.
Germany says no plans to recognise Palestinian statehood
After France said it would recognise a Palestinian state, ally Germany says it harbours no similar intentions, with an eye to protecting Israel.
“Israel’s security is of paramount importance to the German government,” said a government spokesperson. “The German government therefore has no plans to recognise a Palestinian state in the short term.”
Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani earlier said that recognition of a Palestinian state must occur simultaneously with the recognition of Israel by the new entity.
‘We don’t want words, we want actions’, Gaza-based journalist pleads
Gaza-based journalist Noor al-Shana said people in the enclave are tired of what she called empty expressions of solidarity from the international community.
“We don’t want just words … we want actions,” al-Shana pleaded. “We want you to open borders. We want you to stop this genocide.”
“There are thousands of children dying now and no one is doing anything,’ she added. “The world is just saying ‘Free Palestine’ … We don’t want words, we want solutions.”
“Enough, we are tired,” she said, fighting back tears. “We are suffocating. We are dying here.”
