Netanyahu: ‘No more excuses' for UN after Gaza aid routes opened
Jerusalem — Jordanian and Emirati planes dropped food into Gaza on Sunday, as Israel began a limited 'tactical pause' in military operations to allow the UN and aid agencies to tackle a deepening hunger crisis.
The Israeli military said it had also begun airdropping food into the Palestinian territory -- making one drop of seven palettes -- while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected what he characterised as UN 'lies' that his government was to blame for the dire humanitarian situation.
The army also dismissed allegations that it had been using starvation as a weapon, saying it had coordinated with the UN and international agencies to 'increase the scale of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip'.
UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher welcomed the tactical pauses, saying he was in 'contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window'.
But the UN's World Food Programme said a third of the population of Gaza had not eaten for days, and 470,000 people were 'enduring famine-like conditions' that were already leading to deaths.
The Israeli decision came as international pressure mounted on Netanyahu's government to head off the risk of mass starvation in the territory.
Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz joined the chorus of concern on Sunday, urging Netanyahu 'to provide the starving civilian population in Gaza with urgently needed humanitarian aid now.'
Accusing the UN of fabricating 'pretexts and lies about Israel' blocking aid, Netanyahu said in remarks at an airbase that 'there are secure routes' for aid.
'There have always been, but today it's official. There will be no more excuses,' he added.
Since Israel imposed a total blockade on aid entering Gaza on March 2, the situation inside the territory has deteriorated sharply. More than 100 NGOs warned this week of 'mass starvation'.
Though aid has trickled back in since late May, the UN and humanitarian agencies say Israeli restrictions remain excessive and road access inside Gaza is tightly controlled.
'Life's wish'
The Jordanian military said its planes, working with the United Arab Emirates, had delivered 25 tonnes of aid in three parachute drops over Gaza on Sunday. Truckloads of flour were also seen arriving in northern Gaza through the Zikim area crossing from Israel, according to AFP journalists.
The charity Oxfam's regional policy chief Bushra Khalidi called Israel's latest moves a 'welcome first step' but warned they could prove insufficient.
'Starvation won't be solved by a few trucks or airdrops,' she said. 'What's needed is a real humanitarian response: ceasefire, full access, all crossings open, and a steady, large-scale flow of aid into Gaza.
'We need a permanent ceasefire, a complete lifting of the siege.'
In general, humanitarian officials are deeply sceptical airdrops can deliver enough food safely to tackle the hunger crisis facing Gaza's more than two million inhabitants.
In Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa district, 30-year-old Suad Ishtaywi said her 'life's wish' was to simply feed her children. She spoke of her husband returning empty-handed from aid points daily.
Chaotic scenes broke out at the site where Israel conducted its first food drop, witnesses told AFP.
Samih Humeid, a 23-year-old from the Al-Karama neighbourhood of Gaza City, said dozens of people had gathered to rush towards the palettes of supplies parachuted onto the area.
'It felt like a war, everyone trying to grab whatever they could. Hunger is merciless. The quantities were extremely limited, not enough even for a few people, because hunger is everywhere. I only managed to get three cans of fava beans,' he said.
In a social media post, the Israeli military announced it had 'carried out an airdrop of humanitarian aid as part of the ongoing efforts to allow and facilitate the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip'.
AFP journalists saw Egyptian trucks crossing from Rafah, with cargo routed through Israel's Kerem Shalom checkpoint for inspection before entering Gaza.
The Israeli army's daily pause from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm will be limited to areas where its troops are not currently operating -- Al-Mawasi in the south, central Deir el-Balah and Gaza City in the north.
Israel said 'designated secure routes' would also open across Gaza for aid convoys carrying food and medicine.
The military said the measures should disprove 'the false claim of deliberate starvation'.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, citing 'reasonable grounds' to suspect war crimes including starvation -- charges Israel vehemently denies.
Activists intercepted
On Sunday, according to the Gaza civil defence agency, Israeli army fire killed 27 Palestinians, 12 of them near aid distribution areas.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.
Separately, the Israeli navy brought an activist boat, the Handala operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, into the part of Ashdod, after intercepting and boarding it late Saturday to prevent it attempting to breach a maritime blockade of Gaza.
The legal rights centre Adalah told AFP its lawyers were in Ashdod and had met with 19 of the 21 detained activists and journalists from 10 countries. The other two detainees, dual US-Israeli nationals, had been transferred to Israeli police custody, the group said.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
The Israeli campaign has killed 59,733 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
EU reaches trade framework with Trump
July 27, 2025 | The EU has the framework of a new trade deal with the U.S., but doesn't escape Trump's tariffs. Israel pauses some fighting in Gaza and allows air drops of aid to resume. And, a golden start to the world championships for swimmer Summer McIntosh.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Clean energy is the future — why are we investing in fossil fuels?
Opinion I don't know about you, but I have to say I'm a bit confused these days. In fact, in political terms, I really don't know whether I'm coming or going. Am I coming out of a fossil fuel-addicted world into a greener cleaner one, or going back to fossil fuels as the only default position to keep Canada financially afloat in the face of a fascist's tariffs? I know which direction almost 80 per cent of us want to be headed, but I'm not sure our provincial and federal leaders agree, given all this talk about gas and oil pipelines cutting through environmentally sensitive northern lands and mega-mining projects in Ontario's 'ring of fire' — peatlands that store a staggering 35 billion tonnes of the world's carbon. So I'm left asking — is this the only way we can cut loose from the U.S. and cope with a trade war, or are our leaders simply taking the easy way out? Easy in the sense that it's all too familiar, seems to be pragmatic and, at least in the short term, may more or less maintain our standard of living. In the somewhat longer term, it won't be easy at all, given that we live in a world that's already blown past the 1.5 degree Celsius mark above pre-industrial levels, and crossed several of the seven thresholds that measure the distance between a climate emergency and climate chaos. Given the latter reality, I find myself asking a couple of simple questions — why aren't Mark Carney and Wab Kinew talking about a clean energy revolution as a way to beat the tariffs and trade war? Why isn't Carney talking about a bolder vision, challenging the government to work together to retool Canada's economy and set our country up to become a world leader in clean energy and green technology? Now, maybe I'm naïve, and god knows I'm no economist, but it seems to me, as I've said before, that if Canada was able to blast forward from an agrarian based economy to an industrialized one in just six years during the Second World War, why can't we do the same now? I mean, we've got a lot of smart Canadians who would likely rise to the challenge and there are quite a few highly skilled Americans looking for a way out of the current political nightmare in their own country, who could be recruited to the cause. And transitioning to clean energy like solar and wind doesn't just make environmental sense, it's also a financially smart, given that renewable energy is now 41 per cent cheaper and just as efficient. It's also more secure, because as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently observed — 'There are no price spikes for sunlight, no embargos on wind.' In fact, countries like Denmark and Germany have already demonstrated that the transition to clean energy works by generating 50 per cent to 67 per cent of their power needs with solar and wind. Canada, meanwhile, is generating a paltry seven per cent to 11 per cent of its total electricity with alternate sources. This when Atlantic Canada is deemed to have some of the best wind power potential in the world and the Prairies have excellent prospects for solar. Not to mention the fact that clean energy technologies offer numerous business opportunities for economic growth, which also expands Canada's trade options. Just look at China where investments low carbon manufacturing as well as solar and EVs have created new and booming markets. And the irony is that the vast majority of Canadians want a renewable energy transition to happen. According to the Pembina Institute, even 70 per cent of Albertans are worried about their heavy dependence on oil and gas, and more than 80 per cent think their government should be planning for new opportunities for energy workers. Which suggests to me that most Canadians know the world is undergoing an energy transition and are worried that our country will be left in the dust by Europe and China where efforts to reach Net Zero are accelerating. Look, the truth is we don't have much time to get this done, given that climate driven, extreme weather events — from flash floods in Texas, to the massive forest fires in Manitoba — are accelerating. So instead of building pipelines and mining one of the world's largest carbon sinks, maybe we should be focused on investments that will bring Canada into an economically stable, low carbon future. Maybe it's time for our leaders to halt the fool's errand of looking to the past for short-term, carbon-heavy solutions, and start talking to Canadians about a just transition to clean energy. One that will guarantee a better, safer, more secure future for our grandchildren. Erna Buffie is a writer and environmental activist. Read more at
Toronto Star
4 hours ago
- Toronto Star
What to expect, and what not to, at the UN meeting on an Israel-Palestinian two-state solution
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly is bringing high-level officials together this week to promote a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict that would place their peoples side by side, living in peace in independent nations. Israel and its close ally the United States are boycotting the two-day meeting, which starts Monday and will be co-chaired by the foreign ministers of France and Saudi Arabia. Israel's right-wing government opposes a two-state solution, and the United States has called the meeting 'counterproductive' to its efforts to end the war in Gaza. France and Saudi Arabia want the meeting to put a spotlight on the two-state solution, which they view as the only viable road map to peace, and to start addressing the steps to get there.
