Country faces increasing pressure from humanitarian organizations that denounce the ‘mass hunger’ that is spreading around the region after almost two years of conflict
He informed, on Thursday (24), that he called his negotiators who were in the conversations about a ceasefire in order to analyze the response to the last proposal of a 60-day truce. For more than two weeks ago, negotiators on both sides have kept indirect conversations in Qatar in an attempt to agree with a truce that allows for the release of ten living Israeli hostages at first in exchange for an indefinite number of Palestinians detained in Israel. Israel faces increasing pressure from humanitarian organizations that denounce the “mass hunger” that is spreading through the Gaza Strip after almost two years of conflict. The Israeli Prime Minister’s office said that after receiving the response from Hamas, he decided to return the trading team to continue consultations in Israel.
“We thank the efforts of Qatar and Egypt mediators,” as well as the role of American emissary Steve Witkoff to achieve progress in negotiations, he said in a statement. According to a Palestinian source near negotiations, the answer includes amendments to humanitarian aid entry modalities, maps of the areas of which the Israeli Army should be retired and guarantees about the definitive end of the ongoing war since October 2023.
“Hunger threatens its survival”
On the ground, the Israeli bombing and shots continue, and the Gaza Civil Defense reported at least 40 dead, including children and people waiting for help to distribute. In Khan Yunis, in the south of the territory, an al Abd Nasar urged Hamas to agree with a truce after his son died in a bombing in a refugee camp. “They have to do something. Enough of this destruction and people dying,” he told AFP.
After imposing on Gaza a total siege in October 2023, Israel again imposed a blockade on the Palestinian coastal territory in early March, which partially relieved in late May. The more than two million inhabitants of Gaza face great difficulties in accessing food, medicines and fuel.
“The children fall when walking for lack of food,” said Salma Al Qadumi, a cameraman at AFP, when talking about her three nephews, between four and 12 years. On Thursday, AFP, AP and Reuters news agencies and British broadcaster BBC instituted Israel to “authorize the entry and exit of journalists into Gaza,” while said “deeply concerned with the fact that hunger now threatens their survival.”
“Blocking”
The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Wednesday that “much” of the population of Gaza suffers from hunger. “There are people dying massively hungry,” Tedros said. For France, “the risk of hunger” in Gaza is “a result of the block” imposed by Israel.
On Tuesday, a Gaza hospital stated that 21 children had starved and malnutrition in the last 72 hours. “While the siege of the Israeli government will kill the population of Gaza, humanitarian workers now join the same lines for food, risking being shot only to feed their families,” 111 organizations, including doctors without borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, in a joint statement.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said that “there is no hunger caused by Israel. It is a scarcity caused by Hamas,” which governs Gaza and that, according to him, prevents the distribution of help and looting part of it. Hamas has always denied these accusations. The Israeli authorities reported on Thursday that about 70 trucks with help had been discharged the day before at the entrance points and “more than 150 had already been recovered by the UN and international organizations in Gaza.”
Humanitarian agencies state, on the other hand, that the authorizations granted by Israel are limited and coordination to send trucks is an important challenge in a war zone. The Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 in Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP balance based on official data.
The Israeli military campaign in Palestinian territory killed 59,587 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health of Gaza, considered reliable by the UN. The militants also captured, that day, 251 people in Israeli territory, of which 49 follow in captivity in Gaza. Of these, 27 would be dead, according to the army.
*With information from AFP
Posted by Fernando Dias
