The UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA has made serious allegations against Israel. Hardly any help is coming to the Gaza Strip. The responsible Israeli authorities reacted indignantly.
Israel has sharply defended itself against accusations by UN aid workers that it is blocking humanitarian aid for civilians in the embattled Gaza Strip. The deputy director of the United Nations Palestinian Relief Agency (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, Sam Rose, told CNN that “almost nothing” of aid is currently coming to the coastal strip. “That’s a lie, Sam Rose, and you know it,” replied Israeli Palestinian Affairs Authority Cogat on Platform X.
Since May, 500,000 tons of aid have arrived in the Gaza Strip on 26,000 trucks, the agency added. UNRWA is unable to distribute the goods and is trying to cover this up by spreading falsehoods. The information provided by both sides could not initially be independently verified.
Last week, the USA gave Israel a deadline of 30 days to improve supplies for the people in the coastal strip. Otherwise, US arms supplies to Israel could be at risk.
During another trip to the Middle East by Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wants to talk, first in Israel and then in other countries in the region, about ways to end the Gaza war, release the Israeli hostages and alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians, according to the State Department announced in Washington. According to Israeli information, meetings in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Izchak Herzog are planned for Tuesday.
In view of the dramatic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, the federal government also once again demanded that Israel allow more aid deliveries into the contested area. Reports of a high number of civilian deaths and a widespread closure of aid supplies, particularly in the northern Gaza Strip, are very worrying, said a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in Berlin.
The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, described the hardship and horror in the Gaza Strip in drastic terms. Israeli authorities continued to prevent humanitarian aid organizations from delivering essential supplies such as medicine and food to people in the northern coastal strip. Hospitals were being shelled and had no electricity, he wrote on
There are also reports that people who tried to escape are being killed. The bodies on the streets could not be recovered. “A ceasefire would be a start to putting an end to this endless nightmare,” Lazzarini said.
The Gaza war was triggered by the massacre by Hamas and other extremists from the Gaza Strip in Israel on October 7th last year, with 1,200 dead and 250 abducted. Israel therefore wants to destroy Hamas.
However, talks about an end to the fighting through the mediation of the USA, Egypt and Qatar have not started for months. The killing of Hamas leader Jihia Sinwar last week did not change this.
According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, more than 42,000 people have died and around 100,000 have been injured in the coastal strip with a population of more than two million since the start of the war.
During the night, the Israeli army bombed financial facilities of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, which are an important pillar of power for the Shiite militia. The army said the facilities were used by Hezbollah “to finance its terrorist activities against the State of Israel.”
