Jerusalem
CNN
—
Officials from the United States and Israel are discussing a mechanism to deliver help to Gaza avoiding Hamas, an Israeli source familiar with the matter told CNN.
The initiative to deliver helps is about to meet the third month of Israeli block to Gaza, and after the president of the United States, Donald Trump, told the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the end of last month: “We have to be good with Gaza.”
Axios was the first to inform this Saturday that the United States, Israel and representatives of a new international foundation are close to an agreement on how to resume the delivery of aid, according to two anonymous Israeli and American sources
The Israeli source that spoke with CNN did not mean if the agreement was imminent. CNN has contacted the US Department of State for comments, but has not yet had an answer.
For two months, Israel has carried out a total siege in Gaza, refusing to allow the entry of a single humanitarian aid truck or commercial goods. This is the longest period that Israel has imposed a complete blockade of this type.
Israel states that he cut the entry of humanitarian aid to press Hamas to free hostages. But international organizations claim that their actions violate international law, and some even accuse Israel of using hunger as a gun of war, which constitutes a war crime.
While answering journalists’ questions at the end of last month, Trump was asked if the issue of Gaza aid had emerged during his recent conversation with Netanyahu.
“Gaza’s theme came out,” Trump replied. “And I said: ‘We have to be good with Gaza’ because people are … those people are suffering.”
“There is a very large need for medicines; of food and medicines. We are taking care of it,” he said.
At the end of last year, before the total blockade of Israel to Gaza, the integrated classification of phases of food security (CIF) warned that the risk of famine persists throughout the territory, projecting that 16 % of the population would be in famine in April.
Dr. Ahmad Al-Farra, head of the Department of Pediatrics of the Nasser de Gaza Medical Complex, warned this Saturday that “a sanitary catastrophe threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of people” in the enclave.
“We face the danger of a massive wave of malnutrition deaths if the current humanitarian crisis is not addressed,” he told CNN.
First of this Saturday, Janan Saleh Al-Sakkafi, two months old, died from malnutrition at the Al-Arntisi hospital, as Dr. Munir al Barsh, general director of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, told CNN.
The World Food Program states that it is prepared to get to Gaza is sufficient to feed the entire population, about two million people, for up to two months. The main UN agency that helps the Palestinians, the UNRWA for its acronym in English, has stated that it has almost 3,000 trucks full of help waiting to enter Gaza. Both need Israel to raise their blockade to enter that help.
Netanyahu is under intense pressure on the part of the extreme right of their fragile government coalition to continue fighting in Gaza and retains help as a means of pressure against Hamas.
Last month, the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, said that his government is working on a “civil business” mechanism to distribute humanitarian aid in Gaza in a “posterior” phase, which caused a tough reaction of extremist politicians.
“While our hostages languish in the tunnels, there is absolutely no reason for gaza to enter or a single gram of food or any help,” said the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir.
Katz later clarified that “no humanitarian aid will go to Gaza.”
At the beginning of April, COGAT, the Israeli agency that manages the policy for the Palestinian territories and the flow of help to Gaza, announced a “new authorization mechanism” aimed at “preventing the infiltration of Hamas in humanitarian organizations.”
“The mechanism is designed to support help organizations, improve supervision and accountability, and ensure that help reaches the needy civilian population, instead of being diverted and stolen by Hamas,” he said, without giving details about when he will start.
