Sweden’s foreign ministry will summon Israel’s ambassador in Stockholm to protest against a lack of humanitarian aid to people in Gaza, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said yesterday.
Last week, under growing international pressure, Israeli authorities allowed a trickle of aid into the Palestinian enclave but the few hundred trucks carried only a tiny fraction of the food needed by a population of 2 million at risk of famine after nearly three months of blockade.
Kristersson told Swedish news agency TT that the European Union should impose sanctions and exert diplomatic pressure on Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“We have been incredibly clear about that, ourselves and together with many other European countries,” Kristersson told TT.
“That pressure is now increasing, no doubt, and for very good reasons,” he said.
The Swedish prime minister’s office confirmed to Reuters that Kristersson had made the statement.