The situation is terrible for civilians in the Gaza Strip. Faced with international concerns, Israel has decided to authorize a “minimal fuel supplement” for this Palestinian territory where the Israeli army is at war against Hamas, the Prime Minister’s office announced on Wednesday.
This announcement comes against a backdrop of increased international pressure as fighting intensifies in the southern Gaza Strip and the UN warns of “a total collapse of public order soon due to desperate conditions.”
A minimum quantity “determined periodically”
“The security cabinet this evening approved the war cabinet’s recommendation to authorize a minimum fuel surcharge,” Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on X. According to him, this increase is “necessary to avoid a humanitarian collapse and the “appearance of epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip”, controlled by Hamas. “The minimum quantity will be determined periodically by the war cabinet based on the health and humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” he added.
On Wednesday, the UN Secretary General said he feared that “even limited humanitarian aid” would become “impossible”, highlighting “the constant bombings by the Israeli armed forces” and “the absence of shelter or the minimum to survive” .
Antonio Guterres invoked for the first time since his arrival at the head of the United Nations in 2017 article 99 of the Charter which allows him to “draw the attention of the Council” to a file which “could endanger the maintenance international peace and security”. In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen described Antonio Guterres’ mandate as a “danger to world peace”.
Leaders of G7 countries, including key partners of Israel, also called on Wednesday for “more urgent” action to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The Israeli announcement also comes two days after the call from their main ally, the United States, to let more fuel enter Gaza, American diplomacy having mentioned “very frank conversations”.