UN tells Israel access to northern port critical for Gaza aid
Three United Nations agencies called Monday on Israel to allow access to the port of Ashdod, north of Gaza, for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid.
Bringing food and supplies to the besieged population of Gaza, which is increasingly at risk of famine, also depends on the opening of new entry routes into the territory, the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a joint statement.
The use of Ashdod, located some 40 km (25 miles) north of the Gaza border, is “critically needed by aid agencies”, they said, while calling for a “fundamental step change in the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza”.
The war on Gaza, now in its 100th day, has sparked a humanitarian catastrophe for the besieged strip’s 2.4 million people, who are struggling to get food, water, fuel and medical care.
Opening the Ashdod port would reduce the time it takes to transport food to Gazans from the north, WFP’s regional director for the Middle East, Corinne Fleischer, told AFP earlier this month.
Meanwhile, four US officials told Axios that President Joe Biden and other senior US officials are becoming increasingly frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rejection of most of the administration’s recent requests related to the war in Gaza.
Biden’s administration keeps pressing Israel to reengage with Palestinians as partners once fighting in Gaza is over and support their eventual independence. Netanyahu keeps saying no.
Even on actions to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians, the two allies are far apart.
That cycle, frustrating to much of the world, seems unlikely to end, despite US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s fourth urgent diplomatic trip this week to the Middle East since the war started. Though the United States, as Israel’s closest ally and largest weapons supplier, has stronger means to apply pressure on Israel, it shows no willingness to use them.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Monday the United States made a “big mistake” by providing Israel with extensive support, adding that it was a complete miscalculation by Israel and its allies who thought they could destroy Hamas in a short period of time.
He emphasized that Israel achieved none of its goals through its attacks against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
Lawsuit against US, UK
After South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for genocide in Gaza, the country’s nearly 50 lawyers are preparing a separate lawsuit against the US and UK governments on the grounds that they are complicit in Israeli forces’ war crimes in Palestine.
The initiative, led by South African lawyer Wikus Van Rensburg, aims to prosecute those who are complicit in the crime in civilian courts in collaboration with lawyers from the US and UK, with whom he is already in contact.
Rensburg, who has been writing letters to various countries and the ICJ for the last few weeks demanding that Israel and its supporters be prosecuted, has begun preparations to file a lawsuit against the two Western countries, with the support of his colleagues.
On Monday, health officials in Hamas-run Gaza reported more than 24,000 deaths in the war with Israel which has sent shockwaves across the region.
According to the ministry, more than 60 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across the territory overnight.
It said dozens of people were also wounded in what the resistance group’s media office described as “intense” Israeli strikes and artillery bombardments across the Gaza Strip.