Israel has agreed to allow a "minimal" amount of aid into the territory of over 2 million people after a nearly three-month blockade that prevented the entry of food, medicine and fuel, among other goods. The blockade prompted warnings from food experts of a risk of famine. The first few trucks entered Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he made the decision to let in limited aid after pressure from allies, who he said couldn't support Israel so long as “images of hunger” were coming out of Gaza.
Criticism of Israel's conduct intensified Monday when allies Canada, France and the United Kingdom threatened "concrete actions” against the country, including sanctions, and called on Israel to stop its “egregious” new military actions in Gaza. Netanyahu rejected the criticism, saying it was “a huge prize” for Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that would invite more such violence.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot denounced the Israeli government’s “blind violence” in Gaza that he said has turned the Palestinian territory into a “place of death.”
“This must stop,” Barrot told French radio France Inter on Tuesday.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA, said the world body had received approvals for about 100 trucks to enter Gaza.
The U.N. says that amount of trucks is just “drop in the ocean" of what is needed. Some 600 trucks a day had entered during a ceasefire earlier this year.
Israel launched another major operation in the territory over the weekend, saying it aims to return dozens of hostages held by Hamas and destroy the militant group. More than 300 people have been killed in Gaza during the latest onslaught, according to health officials.
Israeli politician criticizes killing ‘babies as a hobby’
Criticism against Israel's conduct in Gaza came also from inside the country, with a leader of Israel's center-left politics saying on Tuesday that Israel was becoming an "outcast among nations" because of the government's approach to the war.
“A sane country doesn’t engage in fighting against civilians, doesn’t kill babies as a hobby and doesn’t set for itself the goals of expelling a population,” Yair Golan, a retired general and leader of the opposition Democrats party, told Reshet Bet radio.
His comments were rare criticism from within Israel of its wartime conduct in Gaza. Many Israelis have criticized Netanyahu throughout the war, but that has been mostly limited to what opponents argue are his political motives to continue the war. Criticism like Golan's, over the war's toll on Palestinian civilians, has been almost unheard.
Netanyahu swiftly slammed Golan's remarks, calling them “wild incitement” against Israeli soldiers and accusing Golan of echoing “disgraceful antisemitic blood libels” against the country.
Golan, who donned his uniform during Hamas' 2023 attack to join the fight against the raiding militants, previously sparked an uproar when as deputy military chief of staff in 2016, he likened the atmosphere in Israel to that of Nazi-era Germany.
Strikes pound Gaza
Over recent days, strikes have pounded areas across Gaza and Israel has issued evacuation orders for Gaza's second-largest city, Khan Younis, which endured a previous offensive that left vast destruction.
In the latest strikes, two in northern Gaza hit a family home and a school-turned-shelter, killing at least 22 people, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
A strike in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed 13 people, and another in the nearby built-up Nuseirat refugee camp killed 15, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Two strikes in the southern city of Khan Younis killed 10 people, according to Nasser Hospital.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas command centers and only targets militants, blaming Hamas for civilian deaths because the group operates in densely populated areas.
Israel says it seeks to seize Gaza and hold on to territory there, displace hundreds of thousands of people and secure aid distribution.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
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Magdy reported from Cairo and Goldenberg from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.
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Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP