Israel’s establishment in Gaza has been suggested by US President Donald Trump, which critics claim would further enshrine the Israeli occupation and put a risk on the safety of those seeking aid.
Trump made the claim that Hamas steals food from Gaza, which aid organizations and UN officials have refuted, while speaking to reporters on his presidential jet on Tuesday.
Even Israeli officials have allegedly told The New York Times that there is no evidence Hamas is receiving any food. Trump did, however, make a different suggestion.
“Many things have been taken,” he said. Money is sent by them. Food is delivered. And Hamas steals it, Trump told Air Force One reporters. It’s therefore a challenging little game.
Despite erratic operations that have resulted in Israeli troops firing on hungry Palestinians, he added that he lacked confidence in Israel to handle the distribution of US aid.
“We’re going to have a conversation with Israel,” he declared. And we believe they can do it well, according to Trump. They want to ensure proper distribution at the food centers, according to the president.
The locations and dates for the sites’ establishment are unknown, and Israel has no idea whether to run them through the GHF, a contentious US-backed aid organization that has been accused of unsafe practices.
Trump’s remarks suggest that the US isn’t willing to support the UN and its partners on the ground in resuming aid distribution in Gaza.
Since May, Israel has tightened its blockade of Gaza, allowing food into the area almost exclusively through GHF, which has four locations set up in the area’s south.
Israeli fire, which Israel used to enter or leave GHF centers, has claimed the lives of hundreds of Palestinians.
Numerous people have died from malnutrition as a result of the siege, which has led to an Israeli-imposed hunger crisis in the area.
Witnesses from the Israeli military and GHF have testified to the abuses that have occurred at the foundation’s sites recently.
A US army veteran who worked with GHF, Anthony Aguilar, claimed that the organization had been delivering food in Gaza insufficiently.
He claimed that it has also been used to force Palestinians to flee the southern region because of displacement.
In a video that was posted on social media, Aguilar told Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, “I’ve seen the Israeli military firing into the crowds of Palestinians, firing over their heads, firing at their feet,” Aguilar said. “Not just with rifles or machine guns, but tanks, tank rounds, artillery, mortars, missiles,” Aguilar said.
He argued that the aid workers were merely used as a means of crowd control because they were “not combatants, because they were hostile, or because they were Hamas.”
The Netanyahu government has been using food as a weapon of war as Gaza’s hunger worsens, with Trump and other U.S. taxpayer dollars contributing to this.
Although it hurts to listen to this, a Green Beret, a veteran of the United States Army, who first witnessed it, told me: pic. twitter.com/K6LNxN5P4Q
Critics claim that setting Israeli troops in charge of distribution centers for food could lead to even more atrocities against aid seekers.
Israel has disputed Hamas propaganda by saying that there isn’t actual hunger in Gaza and that there isn’t.
Trump acknowledged on Monday that the territory is “real starvation,” but he made no remarks about Israel.
Instead, he argued on Tuesday that Israel should play a role in the aid delivery.
Trump told reporters, “I believe Israel wants to do it, and they’ll do it well.”
“They’ll do a good job if they do it, and I think they do it as well if they do it.” The food will be distributed as intended.
He compared any resistance to Israel to a “reward” for Hamas.
He responded to a reporter who inquired about the possibility of the US pushing Israel toward a long-term resolution to end the conflict by saying, “You really are rewarding Hamas, and I’m not about to do that.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant were detained last year by the International Criminal Court for allegedly using starvation as a means of war.
Source: Aljazeera
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