UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths told CNN Europe on Wednesday (18) that the Gaza Strip will need 100 trucks of humanitarian aid per day, hours after American President Joe Biden announced that Israel accepted the entry of this type of aid into the enclave from Egypt.
“That used to be the amount of the aid program that went to Gaza,” Griffiths said. “We have been engaged in incredibly detailed negotiations with the parties to reach an understanding and agreement on exactly what an aid program for southern Gaza would look like.”
The coordinator said there is a need for “assurance that we can act at scale every day, deliberately, repetitively and reliably” and “safely”.
“International humanitarian law exists for a reason. It stipulates that people make their own choices about where to be safe and demands that we all ensure that safety, and that the humanitarian community provides aid to people in the places they choose to be safe,” said Griffiths, who highlighted that aid will go to the civilian population and not to the terrorist group Hamas (which controls Gaza) and which expects aid to begin being delivered within the next two days.
Earlier, Biden, who visited Israel, assured that the Jewish State accepted the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, something it had opposed until now in retaliation for the brutal Hamas attack on October 7 that started the current war.
“Israel has agreed that humanitarian assistance can begin to be transferred from Egypt to Gaza,” Biden said in a statement at the end of his visit to Israel. More than a hundred containers of humanitarian aid are waiting at the Rafah crossing – the only one in the Gaza Strip not controlled by Israel and which connects it to the Egyptian Sinai – for the Israeli government to give the green light for their entry into the enclave.
“We are working closely with the Egyptian government, the United Nations and its agencies, such as the World Food Program (WFP), and other partners in the region to get trucks across the border as quickly as possible,” analyzed Biden.
The American president also announced an aid fund of US$100 million in humanitarian assistance for Gaza and the occupied West Bank, to support more than 1 million people displaced by the conflict. “The people of Gaza need food, water, medicine and shelter,” he said.
After Biden’s statements, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated that “Israel will not impede humanitarian assistance [a partir] of Egypt, as long as it is only food, water and medicine for the civilian population in the south of the Gaza Strip.”
“As long as these supplies do not reach Hamas. They will be prevented from reaching Hamas”, specified a statement released by the prime minister’s office after a meeting of his war cabinet, which hours earlier also met with Biden.
After 11 days of opposition to the entry of humanitarian aid from Egypt, Israel made the concession “in light of the United States’ extensive and vital support for the war effort and at the request of the President [Biden]”.
However, Israel’s war cabinet has made clear that it “will not permit any humanitarian assistance [partindo] from its territory to the Gaza Strip until the hostages are returned.”
“Israel demands that the Red Cross visit our hostages and is working to mobilize broad international support for this demand,” the statement added.
Hundreds of thousands of Gaza Strip residents are being evacuated to the south of the enclave, where drinking water and food supplies are scarce. The war, which began 12 days ago, has already left more than 3,400 dead in Gaza and at least 11,000 injured.
Hamas’ brutal terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, which started the war, caused 1,400 deaths on the Israeli side. (With EFE Agency)
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