The first shipment of humanitarian aid to Gaza, landed via the US military’s floating dock, has arrived. But many times more food and medical supplies are required to meet the needs of 2.3 million starving Palestinians…
The first aid consignment came off its ship and onto trucks for the short drive into the heart of Gaza yesterday morning, EDT.
It’s estimated the British-provided supplies are enough to feed 11,000 people for a month. But that’s a small dent in the prevailing Gaza famine emergency. The World Food Program (WFP) has declared the region to be experiencing a ‘famine catastrophe’.
Human Rights Watch has declared: “The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip, which is a war crime.”
Some background…
The Israeli Military has closed all land entrances to Gaza, cutting off the flow of humanitarian aid. That move has come under severe criticism by a number of UN members. And the UN has, in fact, demanded twice that Israel re-open those ‘gates’ immediately. But it appears those demands have fallen on deaf ears.
Israel is continuing its war against Hamas, the Palestinian nationalist force that conducted attacks on Israeli towns last October 7, taking more than 250 hostages. But it’s hammering civilians trapped in the territory at least as hard as it is the militants.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of waging a war or attrition on the entire Gaza population. The Prime Minister’s own Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, has challenged his conduct of the war. Opposition party leader Benny Ganz, the third member of the Israeli War Cabinet, agrees with Gallant. But Netanyahu continues his campaign to ‘destroy’ Hamas, and establish a non-militant government in Gaza.
Future prospects…
It remains to be seen how much humanitarian aid can be moved off of ships and into Gaza via the US dock system. But the bottom line is, food is flowing again…
~ Maggie J.