Israel
closes the most direct route for aid to Palestinians in Gaza
Blockade
will increase diplomatic pressure on Israel as Spain PM Pedro Sánchez describes
situation as ‘genocide’
Jason Burke
in Jerusalem
Thu 26 Jun
2025 17.41 BST
Israel has
closed crossings into northern Gaza, cutting the most direct route for aid to
reach hundreds of thousands of people at risk of famine, as airstrikes and
shelling killed dozens more people in the devastated Palestinian territory.
The move to
close the crossings on Thursday will increase diplomatic pressure on Israel as
attention shifts from its brief conflict with Iran, back to the violence and
grave humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
During the
12 days Israel was fighting Iran, more than 800 Palestinians were killed in
Gaza – either shot as they desperately sought food in increasingly chaotic
circumstances or in successive waves of Israeli strikes and shelling.
Pedro
Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister and an outspoken critic of Israel’s offensive,
on Thursday became the most prominent European leader to describe the situation
in Gaza as a “genocide”.
Speaking
before an EU summit in Brussels, Sánchez mentioned an EU report that found
“indications” Israel was breaching its human rights obligations under the
cooperation deal, which forms the basis for trade ties.
The text
cited Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory, the
high number of civilian casualties, attacks on journalists and the massive
displacement and destruction caused by the war.
Israel
vehemently denies the allegation of war crimes and genocide, which it says are
based in anti-Israel bias and antisemitism.
The
spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, said Israeli
forces had killed 56 people on Thursday, including six who were waiting for
food in two separate locations.
There was no
independent confirmation of the claim, but medical records of field hospitals
run by the International Committee of the Red Cross and other NGOs seen by the
Guardian detail hundreds of injuries from bullets among civilians seeking aid
in the last two weeks. Witnesses have also described lethal fire from Israeli
troops.
The Israeli
military said soldiers had “fired warning shots” in order to prevent “suspects
from approaching them” near the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, where
Palestinians gather each night, often in the hope of stopping trucks.
Food has
become extremely scarce in Gaza since a tight blockade on all supplies was
imposed by Israel throughout March and April, threatening many of the 2.3
million people who live there with a “critical risk of famine”.
Since the
blockade was partly lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but has
faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military
restrictions, continuing airstrikes and growing anarchy.
Reaching the
north, where the need is greatest, has been hardest but became much easier when
Israel opened the Zikim crossing, allowing wheat and other basics to be
transported there directly.
Aid
officials in the territory described Thursday’s closure of Zikim, which Israel
said was necessary to stop Hamas seizing aid, was “very problematic” and would
directly impact aid distribution.
New food
distribution points set up by a secretive US- and Israel-backed private
organisation called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation are located in central and
south Gaza, out of reach of most of the million people estimated to be in the
north.
The Israeli
government ordered the closure of the northern crossing points after footage
surfaced on social media showing armed men guarding a shipment of aid. Israeli
rightwing rivals to Netanyahu claimed they were Hamas, but aid workers and
others in Gaza said the guards were loyal to a council of local community
leaders who had organised protection for a convoy of much-needed supplies.
The Higher
Commission for Tribal Affairs, which represents influential clans in the
territory, said the guards had been organised “solely through tribal efforts”
and that no Palestinian faction – a reference to militant groups in Gaza
including Hamas – was involved.
“The clans
came … to form a stance to prevent the aggressors and the thieves from stealing
the food that belongs to our people,” said Abu Salman Al Moghani, a
representative of the Commission.
On Monday,
79 trucks from aid organizations and the international community containing
food for children, medical supplies and medications were transferred into Gaza
after undergoing thorough security inspections, Israeli authorities said. On
Tuesday, the total was 71.
The World
Health Organization said on Thursday that it had delivered its first medical
shipment into Gaza since 2 March, adding however that the nine truckloads were
“a drop in the ocean”.
Last week
the WHO said only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were minimally to partly
functional, with the rest unable to function at all.
Israel
launched its campaign aiming to destroy Hamas after the group’s 7 October 2023
attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly
civilians, and took another 251 hostage. The militants still hold 49 hostages,
fewer than half of them alive.
The overall
death toll in Gaza in the 20-month conflict has now reached 56,259, mostly
civilians.
Hopes of a
third ceasefire were raised on Wednesday when the US president, Donald Trump,
told reporters he believed “great progress is being made on Gaza”. But Hamas
and Israeli officials have since suggested no agreement is close.
Taher
al-Nunu, a Hamas official, said on Wednesday that talks with mediators had
“intensified” but that the group had “not yet received any new proposals” to
end the war.
Israeli
officials said only that efforts to return the hostages were ongoing “on the
battlefield and via negotiations”.
Seven
Israeli soldiers were killed in a single attack in southern Gaza on Tuesday,
the military’s deadliest day in the territory since it broke a ceasefire with
Hamas in March.
Benjamin
Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, is facing growing calls from opposition
politicians, relatives of hostages in Gaza and much of the Israeli public to
bring an end to the fighting.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário