This was stated in a letter signed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Minister Lloyd Austin. The letter sent two days ago is known to be the strongest written warning the US has given to its allies.
After the letter was leaked to the media, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed its contents on Tuesday. The US is “deeply concerned” about the condition of civilians in Gaza, and Israel should take “immediate” action to increase aid supplies (including food).
Completed by the author Sacha Kester is Volkskrant’s foreign editor and writes about Belgium, Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as the Middle East.
If these efforts fail, this could have ‘consequences’ for Israel, the letter said. The following refers to US laws that may prohibit sending military aid to countries that obstruct humanitarian assistance.
According to the US, Israel must also end “the isolation of northern Gaza” and once again guarantee that the government does not “forcibly evacuate civilians from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip.”
Last weekend, Israel launched a new offensive in northern Gaza. The area’s population, estimated at around 400 thousand people, was told to leave south immediately. Hamas is said to be regrouping in the north, and Israel wants to ‘completely destroy’ the ‘terrorist infrastructure’ in the region.
The military operation was accompanied by a blockade of aid supplies. Since August, Israel has allowed only limited aid to northern Gaza. In October, no food aid trucks arrived at all.
Shot on the street
Some residents refused to evacuate because they believed that the southern area of the Gaza Strip was also unsafe. Others tried to escape, but were unable to do so. For example, the Jabalia refugee camp (which is not a camp with tents, but rather a densely populated neighborhood with stone houses) was surrounded by the Israeli army. There were also stories of civilians in other neighborhoods trying to leave and being shot along the way.
Apart from the United States, the UN also strongly condemned the “large number of civilian casualties” that occurred in northern Gaza in recent days. Human rights organization Amnesty International said Israel should “immediately allow goods such as food and fuel.” “Communities are now forced to choose between starvation and fleeing, while their homes and streets are constantly bombarded with bombs and grenades,” the organization said.
Several attacks were also carried out on Tuesday, killing at least fifty people, according to the Reuters news agency. It is said that there were many fatalities, especially in Jabalia. A day earlier, at least 10 people were reported killed in the camp in an attack on a food distribution center.
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, reported that bullets hit starving civilians queuing for flour. At least 40 people were reported injured in the attack, but witnesses told Al Jazeera news channel that Israeli soldiers tried to stop medical teams from taking the victims to hospital.
‘Locked in a nightmare’
Violence also continues in southern Gaza. Last Monday night, Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital was hit, and many of the tents that the refugees had kept in the courtyard – and where they were sleeping at the time – caught fire.
“It’s like we’re trapped in a recurring nightmare,” said 20-year-old Mahoud Wadi. New York Timeswho had been camping in the yard with his family for months. ‘Every time we woke up, we were shouted at by people.’ This is the seventh time the hospital has been attacked. This time was the most horrific time, Wadi said, because he saw bodies everywhere “black and charred, like big lumps of coal”.
According to Fahd al-Haddad, head of the hospital’s emergency department, most of the injured suffered serious burns. Because hospitals did not have facilities to treat burns, he was worried that victims in the most serious condition would eventually die.