JERUSALEM: Israel said on Monday it had met most demands by the United States to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza but was still discussing some items as a deadline looms to improve the situation or face potential restrictions on US military aid.
There are a number of things that remain under discussion and they touch on safety issues, an Israeli official told reporters. He said most issues had been addressed.
Among the US demands that Israel appears to have refused is allowing the entry of 50-100 commercial trucks a day.
The official said commercial activity had been halted because Hamas was controlling the merchants. Restrictions on the entry of closed containers would also not be lifted due to security risks, the official said.
Others, including the opening of a fifth crossing into Gaza, have been implemented.
The United States told its ally Israel in a letter on Oct. 13 that it must take steps to improve the aid situation within 30 days, with Tuesday as the final deadline.
Last week, the State Department said Israel had taken some measures to increase aid access to Gaza but had so far failed to significantly turn around the humanitarian situation.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday he had met the US ambassador and was confident that “we can reach an understanding with our American friends and that the issue will be solved.”
Last week, a committee of global food security experts warned of a strong likelihood that famine is imminent in certain areas of northern Gaza, a claim which Israel rejected outright.
The Israeli official said Israel had added entrances into Gaza, expanded the humanitarian zone, increased security for aid vehicles and managed joint task forces with the international community and many others as part of the process to improve the humanitarian situation.
Israel began a wide military offensive in northern Gaza early last month. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US envoy to the UN, said on Oct. 16 that Washington was watching to ensure Israel’s actions on the ground show it does not have a “policy of starvation” in the north.
Israel says it has met most US demands on Gaza aid as deadline looms
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Israel says it has met most US demands on Gaza aid as deadline looms
- The United States told its ally Israel in a letter on Oct. 13 that it must take steps to improve the aid situation within 30 days, with Tuesday as the final deadline
Kurds in Turkiye protest over Syria Aleppo offensive
- Several hundred people gathered in Diyarbakir while hundreds more joined a protest in Istanbul
- In the capital, Ankara, DEM lawmakers protested in front of the Turkish parliament
DIYARBAKIR, Turkiye: Protesters rallied for a second day in Turkiye’s main cities on Thursday to demand an end to a deadly Syrian army offensive against Kurdish fighters in Aleppo, an AFP correspondent said.
Several hundred people gathered in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkiye’s main Kurdish-majority city, while hundreds more joined a protest in Istanbul that was roughly broken up by riot police who arrested around 25 people, the pro-Kurdish DEM party said.
In the capital, Ankara, DEM lawmakers protested in front of the Turkish parliament, denouncing the targeting of Kurds in Aleppo as a crime against humanity.
The protesters demanded an end to the operation by Syrian government forces against the Kurdish-led SDF force in Aleppo, where at least 21 people have been killed in three days of violent clashes.
It was the worst violence in the northwestern city since Syria’s Islamist authorities took power a year ago. The fighting erupted as both sides struggled to implement a March agreement to integrate autonomous Kurdish institutions into the new Syrian state.
In Istanbul, hundreds of protesters waving flags braved heavy rain near Galata Tower to denounce the Aleppo operation under the watchful eye of hundreds of riot police, an AFP correspondent said.
But some of the slogans drew a sharp warning from the police, who moved to roughly break up the gathering and arrested some 25 people, DEM’s Istanbul branch said.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the police attack on the Rojava solidarity action in Sishane. This brutal intervention, oppression, and violence against our young comrades is unacceptable!” the party wrote on X, demanding the immediate release of those arrested.
At the Diyarbakir protest during the afternoon, protesters carried a huge portrait of the jailed PKK militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, an AFP video journalist reported.
“We urge states to act as they did for the Palestinian people, for our Kurdish brothers who are suffering oppression and hardship,” Zeki Alacabey, 64, told AFP in Diyarbakir.
Although Turkiye has embarked on a peace process with the PKK, it remains hostile to the SDF, which controls swathes of northeastern Syria, seeing it as an extension of the banned militant group and a major threat along its southern border.
It has repeatedly demanded that the SDF merge into the main Syrian military. A defense ministry official said on Thursday that Ankara was ready to “support” Syria’s operation against the Kurdish fighters if needed.
Demonstrators had already taken to the streets in several major Turkish cities with Kurdish majorities on Wednesday, including Diyarbakir and Van, according to images broadcast by the DEM.
