Israel has taken significant steps in recent weeks on allowing aid into Gaza, the US special regional envoy for humanitarian issues said on Tuesday, but considerable work remained to be done as the risk of famine in the enclave is “very high.”
David Satterfield declined to say whether Washington was satisfied by Israel’s moves, weeks after US President Joe Biden demanded action to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying conditions could be placed on US support for close ally Israel if it did not act.
“Israel has taken significant steps in these last two and a half weeks,” Satterfield told reporters. “There is still considerable work to be done. But progress has been made.”
He said the risk of famine throughout war-devastated Gaza, especially in the north, is “very high”, calling for more to be done to get aid to those in need, above all in the part of the tiny, densely populated Palestinian territory.
The United Nations has long complained of obstacles to getting aid in and distributing it throughout Gaza in the six months since Israel began an aerial and ground offensive against Gaza’s ruling Islamist militant group Hamas.
Israel’s military campaign has reduced much of the territory of 2.3 million people to a wasteland with an unfolding humanitarian disaster since October, when Hamas ignited war by storming into southern Israel.
Source: eNCA
In other news – Jub Jub asks the court to relax his bail conditions
Molemo “Jub Jub” Maarohanye has filed an application to have his bail conditions relaxed in the rape and attempted murder charges he is accused of.
Dressed in all black, Jub Jub made an appearance at the Johannesburg Magistrates Court today accompanied by his two uncles and two bodyguards. Read more
