Egyptian FM says EU-Israel deal has failed to increase Gaza aid
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty has said that the EU-Israel deal to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza has not had any effect, according to Asharq AL-Aswat on July 15th.
Abdelatty told reporters that “nothing has changed (on the ground)” ahead of the EU-Middle East meeting in Brussels on July 14th.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, revealed on July 10th that the bloc and Israel had come to an agreement to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, predominantly by increasing the amount of aid trucks allowed to enter the devastated territory, as well as opening crossing points and aid routes.
Kallas said ahead of the meeting that there have been some signs of progress, but they fall short of tangibly improving the situation on the ground.
She outlined that the EU was prepared to coordinate with UN agencies and NGOs to secure a timely execution of such urgent measures.
According to the Independent on July 15th, Kallas stated that “we have reached a common understanding with Israel to really improve the situation on the ground, but it’s not about the paper, but actually implementation of the paper.”
“As long as it hasn’t really improved, then we haven’t all done enough,” she continued, before calling for a ceasefire.
When asked what steps Israel has taken to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar failed to provide details and instead referred to the EU-Israel deal.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told reporters that the situation in Gaza is still disastrous.
He warned that “there is a real catastrophe happening in Gaza resulting from the continuation of the Israeli siege.” He also stated that Israel allowed 40 to 50 aid trucks to enter Gaza from Jordan, which was “far from sufficient” to alleviate the dire circumstances.
The EU-Israel deal came 2 months after the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private aid group backed by Israel and run by US security and logistics companies, effectively monopolised aid distribution in Gaza following its imposition of a months-long blockade on almost all food and aid.
The UN has frequently condemned the GHF for failing to comply with international standards, notably for politicising aid distribution and attacking starving Palestinians who gather at designated aid hubs.
The UN has said that almost 800 Palestinians have been killed whilst trying to access life-sustaining resources, with 615 death occurring near GHF sites. According to the Independent on July 12th, Israeli forces directly firing upon Palestinians attempting to reach designated aid hubs have killed 400 Palestinians and injured a further 3,000.
Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza have left all 2.3 million Palestinians in the territory facing acute food insecurity. A joint UN report revealed that almost half a million people will be at risk of famine by the end of September.
Asharq Al-Aswat, Independent, Maghrebi.org, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification
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