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LAST UPDATE | 21 May
PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD Abbas has welcomed international condemnation of Israel’s “starvation” of Gaza as a key humanitarian organisation slams the “ridiculously inadequate” amount of aid being allowed in.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) claims the quantity of vital supplies being transported into the strip is being used as ”a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over”.
Israel rejects a related European Union decision to review its trade and cooperation agreement in light of a claim by the UN human rights chief Volker Türk that the state’s actions are “tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.
Yesterday, a majority of EU foreign ministers agreed to review the bloc’s trade and cooperation with Israel in response to human rights abuses in Gaza, where the UN has warned much of the population is at risk of starvation.
The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said the EU was acting after “a strong majority” of its 27 member states backed the move, a major shift in the bloc’s position on the war in Gaza. The UK also suspended trade talks with Israel this week.
“We completely reject the direction taken in the statement, which reflects a total misunderstanding of the complex reality Israel is facing,” Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said in a message on X.
We thank the countries that recognied this reality, supported Israel during the discussion, and remain committed to open dialogue with the EU and its member states. We call on the EU to exert pressure where it belongs — on Hamas.
The UK Government announced sanctions to be taken against “extremist Israeli settlers” in the West Bank yesterday, as well as a pause in free trade agreement negotiations with Israel, in response to its “cruel and indefensible” 11-week aid blockade of Gaza.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas today welcomed the international rejection of Israel’s “blockade” and “starvation” of the territory.
This morning, Gaza’s civil defence agency has said that Israeli strikes overnight killed at least 19 people, including a week-old baby.
“Our crews transported 19 dead, most of them children, and dozens of injured following air raids carried out by the Israeli warplanes in various areas of the Gaza Strip last night and early today,” civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said, naming multiple victims including the newborn.
Meanwhile, the level of aid that has entered the Gaza Strip this week is “merely a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over”, according to medical NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Israel has pledged to lift its deadly blockade of the territory as it has simultaneously ramped up its military offensive.
Israel said 93 trucks had entered Gaza on Tuesday but the UN said the aid had been held up.
Today, the United Arab Emirates said it has reached an agreement with Israel to allow the delivery of aid to Gaza, according to a statement released this morning on Emirati state media.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the UAE deputy prime minister and foreign minister held a phone call with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, “which led to an agreement to allow the delivery of urgent humanitarian aid from the United Arab Emirates,” the statement on official news agency WAM said.
Overnight Israeli strikes killed at least 19 people, including a week-old baby, Gaza’s civil defence said.
“Our crews transported 19 dead, most of them children, and dozens of injured following air raids carried out by the Israeli warplanes in various areas of the Gaza Strip last night and early today,” civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said, naming multiple victims including the newborn.
MSF also said at least 20 medical facilities in Gaza have been damaged, or forced partially or completely out of service in the past week during the latest Israeli ground operations, airstrikes, and evacuation orders.
“The Israeli authorities’ decision to allow a ridiculously inadequate amount of aid into Gaza after months of an air-tight siege signals their intention to avoid the accusation of starving people in Gaza, while in fact keeping them barely surviving”, said Pascale Coissard, MSF’s emergency coordinator in Khan Younis.
“This plan is a way to instrumentalise aid, making it a tool to further Israeli forces’ military objectives.”
With reporting from Keith Kelly and AFP
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