Israel failing to provide enough aid to war-torn Gaza, aid agencies say
International aid agencies are critical of Israel over the lack of aid flowing into Gaza.
In short:
International aid organisations say Israel is failing to meet a requirement from the US government to provide enough aid to prevent a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The US State Department says American military assistance to Israel will not change.
Aid agencies allege Israel has failed to provide enough aid to pass a key US ultimatum, the deadline of which passed on Tuesday.
American military support for Israel will continue for the time-being, 30 days after the Biden administration issued an ultimatum to the Netanyahu government to improve humanitarian conditions in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
Aid agencies say little has been done to improve the situation in Gaza, pointing to Israeli government data showing the amount of aid delivered to the enclave in October fell to its lowest level since the war began last year.
Last month, the United States gave Israel 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, with that deadline passing on Tuesday, local time.
The Biden administration had said Israel's failure to allow more aid into the war-ravaged territory would bring consequences, including for US military support for Israel.
But speaking on Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said the US had not made the assessment that Israel was in violation of US law, while reiterating calls for the Netanyahu government to do more to help civilians.
In recent days, Israel opened another crossing into the Gaza Strip for desperately needed aid convoys to pass through.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Kisufim crossing, near Khan Younis, would allow "the delivery of food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment to central and southern Gaza".
"October was a very weak month," an Israeli official told the Associated Press, on condition of anonymity in line with military briefing rules.
"But if you look at the November numbers, we are holding steady at around 50 trucks per day to northern Gaza and 150 per day to the rest of Gaza."
Almost 39,000 tonnes of aid was taken into the territory in October this year, down from its peak of about 137,000 tonnes in April this year.
Aid agencies have also said that getting supplies into Gaza is just the first step, with intense bombardment of parts of Gaza making it too difficult to transport it on to areas which need it most.
COGAT, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, regularly insists aid is sitting inside the border ready to be picked up and distributed, despite reports of convoys being looted once they set off further into Gaza.
UNRWA director of relief and social service Roger Hearn has just left Gaza, and said it is "unrecognisable".
The Australian has been travelling to the territory for more than 20 years, and his latest trip is seared into his memory.
"The suffering that you could see, the number of displaced people, the shelters — makeshift shelters made out of blankets that are not ready for the rains that are about to come to Gaza — the raw sewerage, children picking through garbage to find food," he told the ABC.
"There's lots and lots of really horrific imagery that I think will stay with me for the rest of my life."
UN aid agencies say parts of Gaza are on the verge of famine.
He said the lack of supplies getting to those who need it most is deeply troubling.
"I entered a shelter, and we're talking shelters which were UNRWA schools, basically that were housing up to 8,000 people," he said.
"On a urine-soaked mattress was a young girl with cerebral palsy who was showing every sign of starvation.
"She'd already lost her brother and her parents couldn't purchase nappies because they were unavailable — they couldn't get them, they're blocked with the aid supplies.
"And I was just looking at this child and thinking in Australia it's difficult enough to have a child with a disability, but imagine being in a place where you can't get any of the basic essentials."
He said only 17 per cent of food needed for Gaza is currently getting in.
"Yet we have trucks that have been lined up in the Sinai Desert [in Egypt] and stuck in Ashdod port in Israel for months and months and months," Mr Hearn said.
"That, for me, is the absolute devastating factor — that we could feed the entire Gaza strip for months to come, but we can't get that food in."
At the end of October Israel's parliament, the Knesset, voted in favour of banning Mr Hearn's and his colleagues at UNRWA from working in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Politicians had accused the organisation of being entwined with Hamas.
Israel has also accused Hamas of stealing and withholding aid from Palestinians.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog is due to meet US President Joe Biden in Washington on Tuesday to discuss Israel's ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Saudi prince says Israel must halt actions
As the 13-month conflict between Israel and Hamas rages, Arab and Muslim leaders from 57 countries on Monday said Israel would need to withdraw its military from Gaza as a precondition of any peace agreement.
The nations also denounced "shocking" Israeli crimes in Gaza, at the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman made the comments at a meeting of Arab and Muslim nations.
The war began with Hamas's unprecedented terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 last year, which resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed more than 43,600 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Addressing Monday's summit, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the world must "immediately halt the Israeli actions against our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon" and condemned Israel's campaign in Gaza as "genocide".
Israel waters down 'progress' in Hezbollah peace talks
At the same time Israel has been conducting its campaign in Gaza, it has also become enmeshed in an offensive to its north, against Iran-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Since hostilities erupted a year ago, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 3,243 people and injured 14,134, the Lebanese health ministry said. Its figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israel launched a dozen airstrikes on targets in Beirut on Tuesday.
Hezbollah attacks have killed roughly 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and southern Lebanon over the last year.
On Tuesday, there were a dozen Israeli strikes across Lebanon, including in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut.
Lebanese authorities said 11 people died in the strikes.
In the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, two people were killed after a residential building was struck.
One hit the yard of a kindergarten in a Haifa suburb, where the children had been rushed into a shelter, meaning none were hurt, rescue workers said. TV footage showed damage to the building.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar earlier said Israel had been making progress with ceasefire talks.
Meeting with Israel's general staff for the first time, Israel's newly appointed Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday there would be no ceasefire in Lebanon until Israel achieves its goals.
"Israel will not agree to any arrangement that does not guarantee Israel's right to enforce and prevent terrorism on its own, and meet the goals of the war in Lebanon — disarming Hezbollah and its withdrawal beyond the Litani River and returning the residents of the north safely to their homes," he said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had said earlier on Monday there had been "a certain progress" in ceasefire talks, whilst adding the war was not yet over. The main challenge facing any ceasefire deal would be enforcement, he said.
Reporting with Reuters and AP
By：ABC(责任编辑：admin)
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