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
- US told Israel last month to take steps to improve the aid situation in Gaza within 30 days
- Israel appears to have refused Washington’s demand to allow entry of 50-100 trucks a day
UK condemns drone strikes across Sudan and blocking of aid as famine continues to rage
- Drone attacks by Rapid Support Forces include strike on humanitarian convoy that killed aid worker, and another in North Kordofan that killed 24 people, including 8 children
- Famine conditions reported in Darfur towns of Um Baru and Kernoi; British ambassador calls this a ‘devastating indictment’ of how warring factions ‘continue to block life-saving aid’
NEW YORK CITY: The UK on Friday condemned drone strikes by the Rapid Support Forces, one of the warring military factions in Sudan, and accused the group and its rival, the Sudanese Armed Forces, of blocking life-saving aid while parts of Sudan’s Darfur region descend into famine.
Speaking ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the situation in Sudan, requested by Britain, Bahrain and Denmark, the UK’s deputy ambassador, James Kariuki, told reporters that the latest alert from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warned of famine conditions in the Darfur towns of Um Baru and Kernoi.
“This is a devastating indictment of how the SAF and RSF continue to block life-saving aid,” he added.
The ways in which they are doing this include blocking trade routes, disrupting supply chains and restricting humanitarian access, Kariuki said. Such actions are deliberately exacerbating the crisis, he warned, and constitute violations of international humanitarian law under UN Security Council Resolution 2417.
“Starvation must never be used as a weapon of war,” he added.
More than 33 million people across the country are now in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, Kariuki said, making the humanitarian crisis in Sudan the worst in the world.
The UK also condemned recent RSF drone strikes across the country, including a reported attack on a World Food Programme convoy on Friday that killed an aid worker. Another RSF drone strike in North Kordofan had killed 24 people, including eight children, Kariuki said.
“Humanitarian workers must be able to deliver the response on the ground without obstruction and without retaliation,” he told the Security Council.
The civil war in Sudan began in April 2023 when fighting erupted between the SAF, led by army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the paramilitary RSF, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti.
Kariuki said authorities in the UK had imposed fresh sanctions last Thursday targeting six individuals suspected of committing atrocities or fueling the conflict in Sudan by supplying mercenaries and military equipment.
“These sanctions send a clear message that all those who perpetrate or profit from the brutal violence in Sudan will be held accountable, no matter how long it takes,” he added.
