Israel Eases Gaza Aid Curbs Amid International Outcry

Bloomberg

4 days ago

Live on Bloomberg TV
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00:00A lot of international pressure had been building on Israel to do something about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Resume the passage of humanitarian aid. What do we know? What are the latest developments from the weekend in terms of what is being allowed in now? So, I mean, there does seem to be a change of policy there and we'll see how long it lasts, because as you know, we've been here several times before. So what we can see on the ground is air drops going in. And we know that Israel did some and then we had some coming in, I think from from Jordan as well, anyway. Yeah. And you have aid trucks coming in from both Egypt and Jordan. But I think all the aid groups unanimously are saying it's nowhere near enough. So definitely better than last week. But we're talking about a drop in the ocean relative to what's required. And remember, they're playing a lot of catch up here because you have this total blockade for a least two or three months. And it's been a trickle since then. But as you say, the international pressure, I think, has got to the point where it sort of becomes indefensible not to try and do something. Yeah. Is this going to have any bearings on the cease fire discussions which also collapsed towards the end of last week? I mean, to some extent, but I mean, in terms of the actual impacts on the cease fire and the terms and conditions that both sides want. I can't see a change of change there. And we keep coming up against again and again, you know, there's this sort of insurmountable clash, I would say, between what Hamas is asking for and what Israel is asking for. I don't see any change in that, at least at the moment. Yeah. Later today, the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is going to be meeting with President Trump to discuss trade deal, obviously, and amongst other things they're going to be talking about Gaza. The UK prime minister is also under a lot of pressure now because of President Macron's decision last week to recognise Palestinian statehood. Right. The UK have not said anything to that effect, but he has said that he wants to work with President Trump on pushing for a lasting ceasefire. How much leverage really does the UK Prime Minister have and also how much leverage in this instance does the U.S. have in terms of trying to procure that lasting ceasefire? Yeah, I mean, so starting with the UK on the U.S., I would say next to none, or at least I see no evidence whatsoever that there is any influence there. And that in terms of the sort of the second leg of that, which is the U.S. influence on Bibi, I mean, that waxes and wanes and it kind of depends on what's happening on the ground within Israel. And as you know, Netanyahu is in a more precarious position politically than he was, say, a couple of weeks ago. You know, he's lost his majority, obviously, in the Knesset. And to some extent, he will have to respond, I would suspect, with more thought to what's going on domestically than to the U.S. pressure. That's not to say he ignores what the U.S. is saying, but he's very sort of 5050 about whether he's going to respond in a positive way to what he's being asked to do. Yeah, And also, the U.S. seemed to be a little bit frustrated. And if you listen to the language that came out of Steve Wake of when those ceasefire discussions broke down, he said he doesn't think that Hamas are acting in good faith or in a cooperative manner. So even the U.S. are frustrated with how all this is going.