SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy and Tia Goldenberg
Deir al-balah, Gaza: Britain suspended free trade talks with Israel on Tuesday and hit West Bank settlers with sanctions, less than a day after vowing “concrete actions” if Israel did not stop its latest military offensive aimed at gaining control of the whole of Gaza.
Facing mounting international pressure, Israel allowed aid trucks to enter Gaza this week after an 11-week blockade left the enclave on the brink of famine. But the food and medical supplies carried on the trucks were yet to reach the people who needed them, the United Nations said overnight, because of new security rules that were making it hard for aid workers to distribute the aid.
A truck loaded with humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip makes its way to the Kerem Shalom border crossing in southern Israel on Tuesday.Credit: AP
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said his government could not continue talks on upgrading its trade agreement with an Israeli government that was pursuing what he called egregious policies in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“History will judge them,” Lammy said. “Blocking aid. Expanding the war. Dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible. And it must stop.”
Israeli’s ambassador to Britain, Tzipi Hotovely, was summoned to the Foreign Office, where Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said he would call the blockade “cruel and indefensible”. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told parliament his government was “horrified by the escalation from Israel”.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein called the new sanctions from Britain “unjustified and regrettable” and claimed Israel and Britain had not been talking about free trade.
Experts say many of Gaza’s 2 million residents are at high risk of famine. Even the United States, a staunch Israeli ally, has voiced concerns over the hunger crisis. Israel, under pressure from its allies, agreed this week to allow a “minimal” amount of aid into the Palestinian territory. Some say that response is not enough.
Australia joined a coalition of 23 countries on Tuesday in demanding the full resumption of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and accusing Israel of politicising the delivery of essential food and medicine to Palestinian civilians. The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said there would be a review of the EU’s trade agreement with Israel over the “catastrophic” situation in Gaza.
Although some food, infant formula and medical supplies had entered Gaza in a convoy of trucks this week, a new security process meant aid workers had not been able to bring it to distribution points where it was most needed, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said. The Israeli military forced workers to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and they ran out of time to distribute it.
Israel said last week that it planned to intensify military operations against Hamas and to gain control of the whole of Gaza, which has been devastated by an Israeli air and ground war since Hamas’ cross-border attack on Israeli communities in October 2023. Health officials said new Israeli airstrikes killed at least 85 Palestinians. Medics say strikes have killed more than 500 people in Gaza over the past eight days.
Two-year-old Mohammed Abu Hilal clings to his mother, Yasmine, inside their tent at the Muwasi camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday.Credit: AP
Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza in March, preventing the entry of food, medicine and fuel, in an attempt to pressure Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he decided to let in the limited aid this week after pressure from allies, who told him they couldn’t support Israel while devastating images of starvation were coming out of Gaza.
COGAT, the Israeli defence body that oversees humanitarian aid, said five trucks entered Gaza on Monday and 93 trucks entered on Tuesday. But Dujarric said the UN had confirmed only a few dozen trucks had entered Gaza on Tuesday.
The aid on the trucks included flour for bakeries, food for soup kitchens, baby food and medical supplies. The UN humanitarian agency said it was prioritising baby formula in the first shipments.
But none of that aid actually reached Palestinians, according to the UN. Dujarric described the new security process for getting aid cleared to warehouses as “long, complex, complicated and dangerous”.
The Gaza Strip is seen from a sunflower field on the Israeli side of the border, in southern Israel, on Monday.Credit: Getty Images
He said Israeli military requirements for aid workers to unload and reload the trucks were hindering efforts to distribute the aid. COGAT did not immediately comment on the new procedures.
While the United Nations humanitarian agency received approval for about 100 trucks to enter Gaza, spokesman Jens Laerke said that was far less than the 600 entering daily before the blockade.
In the latest assaults, two strikes in northern Gaza hit a family home and a school-turned-shelter, killing at least 22 people, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command centre and warned civilians ahead of time.
A strike in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed 13 people, and another in the nearby built-up Nuseirat refugee camp killed 15, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Displaced Palestinians collect cooked food from a community kitchen in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on Monday.Credit: Bloomberg
Two strikes in Khan Younis killed 10 people, according to Nasser Hospital. Israel said it was targeting militants and blamed Hamas for civilian deaths because the group operates in densely populated areas.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu said he was recalling his high-level negotiating team from the Gulf state of Qatar after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain in the Qatari capital of Doha.
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said a “fundamental gap” remained between the two parties and that none of the proposals were able to bridge their differences.
Hamas said no real ceasefire talks had taken place since Saturday in Doha. The group accused Netanyahu of “falsely portraying participation” and attempting to “mislead global public opinion” by keeping Israel’s delegation there without engaging in serious negotiations.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
