United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is appalled by an accelerating breakdown of humanitarian conditions in Gaza “where the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing,” his spokesperson said yesterday.
“He deplores the growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
“Israel has the obligation to allow and facilitate by all the means at its disposal the humanitarian relief provided by the United Nations and by other humanitarian organisations.”
A group of 25 Western countries including Britain, France, and Canada said yesterday Israel must immediately end its war in Gaza and criticised what they called the “inhumane killing” of Palestinians, including hundreds near food distribution sites.
The countries in a joint statement condemned what they called the “drip feeding of aid” to Palestinians in Gaza and said it was “horrifying” that more than 800 civilians had been killed while seeking aid.
The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, which the US and Israel backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations.
“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the countries’ foreign ministers said in a joint statement. “The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths.”
The call by about 20 European countries, as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, for an end to the war in Gaza and the delivery of aid comes from many countries which are allied with Israel and its most important backer, the US.
Among those calling for an end to the war are four out of five countries in the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, which includes the US.
Israel’s foreign ministry said the statement was “disconnected from reality” and it would send the wrong message to Hamas.
“The statement fails to focus the pressure on Hamas and fails to recognise Hamas’s role and responsibility for the situation,” the Israeli statement said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar later said he spoke with his British counterpart David Lammy on regional issues, including Gaza. He blamed Hamas “for the suffering of the population and the continuation of the war”.
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called the statement “disgusting” and said blaming Israel was “irrational” because Hamas rejects every proposal to end the war.
The countries behind the statement said Israel was denying essential humanitarian assistance and called on the country to comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.
They urged Israel to immediately lift restrictions to allow the flow of aid and to enable humanitarian organisations and the UN to operate safely and effectively.
They added they were “prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political pathway to security and peace” for Israelis and Palestinians.
Separately, the British government also set out a £60 million ($80.9m) humanitarian aid package for Gaza.
An Israeli undercover force detained Marwan Al Hams, a senior Gaza Health Ministry official, outside the field hospital of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, the ministry said.
It said that Hams, in charge of field hospitals in the enclave, was on his way to visit the ICRC hospital in the city of Rafah when an Israeli force “abducted” him after opening fire, killing one person and wounding another civilian nearby.
Medics said the person killed was a local journalist who was filming an interview with Hams when the incident happened.
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