An announcement made under duress. This Friday, five days after the death of humanitarian workers from an American NGO, Israel announced that it was authorizing the “temporary” delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip, besieged and threatened with famine. This statement comes at a time when international pressure is increasing: on Thursday, Joe Biden raised for the first time the possibility of conditioning American aid to Israel on “tangible” measures.
Israel’s security cabinet approved “immediate measures to increase humanitarian aid to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. Israel will authorize the “temporary” delivery of humanitarian aid through the Israeli port of Ashdod, approximately 40 km north of the Gaza Strip, and through the Erez crossing point, between the Palestinian territory and the southern Israel. The Israeli authorities will also allow “the increase in Jordanian aid through Kerem Shalom”, a border post in southern Israel.
Strikes on humanitarians
In the midst of a humanitarian drama in Gaza, the death on Monday in Israeli strikes of seven workers from the NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK) increased international discontent. In an interview with the BBC, John Flickinger, the father of one of the slain aid workers – Canadian-American Jacob Flickinger – said his son and his colleagues “followed all the rules and procedures, which are very strict, that Israel transmitted to them.” On the ABC channel, Jacob Flickinger’s partner, Sandy Leclerc, said she was “devastated” and asked for “answers”.
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken recalled Thursday that “100% of the population needs humanitarian aid” in Gaza. “And those who mobilize heroically to provide this assistance do so at the risk of their lives,” he declared on the sidelines of a NATO ceremony in Brussels.
“A spectacular increase”
Israel’s primary military supporter, the United States on Thursday demanded from its close partner a “spectacular increase” in humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, hoping to see concrete measures taken “in the coming hours and days”. After the Israeli government’s announcement, the White House called on it to keep its promises by implementing them “quickly and completely”.
Joe Biden, criticized by part of his electorate for his unconditional support for Israel, also pressed Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to conclude “without delay” an agreement for a ceasefire, while negotiations on an end to violence as well as the release of the hostages is stalling, almost six months after the start of the conflict.ns.