US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Israel must to take urgent measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza to avoid legal action regarding US military aidUS news website Axios reported today.
“We are writing to you now to underscore the US administration’s deep concern about the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and to seek urgent and decisive action from your administration this month to reverse this course,” they wrote in an Oct. 13 letter. to their Israeli counterparts Blinken and Austin, according to a post by an Axios reporter on X.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The UN denounces the worst restrictions on the distribution of aid
The United Nations warned today that the population in the Gaza Strip is facing the worst restrictions on humanitarian aid since the start of the war a year ago, while expressing concern about the devastating impact of this situation on children.
“Every day, the children’s situation is getting worse compared to the day before,” said James Elder, the spokesman for the United Nations children’s agency, Unicef.
Large parts of the Gaza Strip were destroyed by Israeli retaliation after the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The Jewish state has stepped up its operations in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave, where hundreds of thousands of people are trapped, according to the United Nations.
“In August, the amount of humanitarian aid delivered to the Gaza Strip was the smallest in a month since the war broke out,” Elder noted, adding that “for many days last week no trucks were allowed to enter enter”.
“We are witnessing today possibly the worst restrictions ever known regarding humanitarian aid,” he complained.
At the beginning of the year, at a time when the United Nations feared an outbreak of famine in the Gaza Strip, there was “a real push to open new routes and new access points,” Elder stressed.
But today, “the situation has completely reversed”, he explained, adding that since the month of May, “entrance from the crossing points has been systematically blocked”.
The northern part of the Gaza Strip “has not received any food, any food aid during the month of October,” lamented James Elder.
The absence of humanitarian aid, coupled with relentless shelling and the fact that about 85 percent of the Gaza Strip is under evacuation orders in one form or another, has made life in the area “absolutely unlivable,” the official said. of the UN.
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