2024-04-05 06:15:48
Israeli Channel 12 reported that the mini-ministerial council decided to increase humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip immediately, and also agreed to open the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the Strip.
The Kan channel, affiliated with the state broadcaster, said that the Israeli cabinet, with the participation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Galant, and Minister in the War Council Benny Gantz, agreed to take immediate steps to increase humanitarian aid to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, to prevent a humanitarian crisis, according to the channel.
The channel indicated that Israel will temporarily allow the delivery of humanitarian aid through the port of Ashdod and the Beit Hanoun (Erez) land crossing, and will also allow an increase in Jordanian aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
This came hours following US President Joe Biden warned Netanyahu of the need to alleviate human suffering in Gaza.
On the other hand, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir said that there was no vote this evening on increasing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and he added that the announcement published by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on this issue is incorrect.
American welcome
For her part, US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson urged the Israeli government to implement its commitment to open the port of Ashdod and the Beit Hanoun crossing, and allow the flow of humanitarian aid from Jordan to Gaza to increase quickly and completely.
The White House welcomed Israel’s announcement of new steps to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza. He urged Israel to open new corridors to deliver aid to Gaza “fully and quickly.”
Working in Gaza is impossible
In a related context, international non-governmental organizations renewed their warning of the impossibility of working in the Gaza Strip in light of the ongoing war, a conflict that, in the view of the head of Doctors Without Borders, amounts to “the level of genocide.”
The organizations’ statements come days following seven members of the World Central Kitchen organization were killed in Israeli raids on the besieged Gaza Strip, where the conflict is approaching its seventh month.
Representatives of several non-governmental organizations working in Gaza (Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, Doctors of the World, Save the Children) held an online press conference.
The head of Doctors Without Borders in France, Isabelle Defourny, said that the targeting of aid workers is not surprising because we have witnessed over the course of six months the Israeli behavior in waging a war once morest a completely besieged population, deprived of food and subjected to intense bombing. She added, Gaza is gradually becoming uninhabitable for human life.
Officers reprimanded
In addition, on Thursday, Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy dismissed the commander of the Nahal Brigade as part of a series of measures following his forces’ killing of international aid workers.
The private Israeli Channel 14 said that Halevy decided to dismiss another senior officer in the brigade, and would also reprimand the commander of the army’s southern region and the commander of the 162nd Armored Division.
On Monday evening, the Israeli occupation army targeted a convoy of the “World Central Kitchen” organization in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, killing 7 foreign employees of the nationalities of Australia, Poland, Britain, the United States, Canada and Palestine.
The ongoing Israeli war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, has left tens of thousands of civilian victims, most of them children and women, and massive destruction, according to Palestinian and UN data, which led to Israel appearing, for the first time, before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing genocide.
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