As Israel’s forced starvation and Palestinian bombardment fuel global outcry, the United Kingdom claims to be working with Jordan on “forward plans” to airdrop aid into besieged Gaza and evacuate children in need of medical care.
On Saturday, two infants in Palestine passed away, the latest among them. In the last 24 hours, there have been five additional deaths in Gaza hospitals as a result of famine and malnutrition. There are now 127 hunger-related deaths in the area, including 85 children.
In an emergency call with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed the idea.
The UK government claimed the leaders had been told in a read-out of the call.
According to Britain’s Press Association, “it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently needed ceasefire into lasting peace.”
The readout stated that the UK will also be developing plans to airdrop aid and evacuate children in need of medical assistance with partners like Jordan.
At home, Starmer’s Labour government has been tarnished for doing too little and arriving late to ease Palestinians’ agonizing conditions.
Since October 2023, hundreds of thousands of people in the UK have been publicly speaking out against Israel’s genocidal war.
More than 100 people were detained by police in the UK last weekend during peaceful demonstrations in the country calling for the end to the campaign group Palestine Action .
In a campaign coordinated by Defend Our Juries, demonstrations took place on Saturday in Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Truro, and London.
As France has stated it will do at the UN General Assembly meeting in September, Starmer is also under increasing pressure to accept a Palestinian state. The prime minister was urged to follow this course of action by more than 200 British parliamentarians this week.
Despite claiming it had reduced sales of weapons, there has been more controversy over claims that the UK government has continued to sell arms to Israel.
Despite a government suspension in September allegedly causing allegations that the UK Parliament has been purposefully “misled,” a report in May found that UK businesses have continued to export military equipment to Israel.
The Palestinian Youth Movement, Progressive International, and Workers for a Free Palestine reported that the UK had sent “8, 630 separate munitions,” all of which fell under the “Bombs, Grenades, Torpedoes, Mines, Missiles, And Similar Munitions Of War And Parts Thereof-Other” category.
“Awaiting the green light to enter Gaza.”
UNRWA’s head of the UNPLO, Philippe Lazzarini, claimed that proposed airdrops of aid would be a pricey, ineffective “distraction” that could kill famined Palestinians.
In response to severe food shortages brought on by its punishing months-long blockade, Israel announced on Friday that it would allow airdrops of food and supplies from other countries into Gaza in the coming days.
Lazzarini, however, claimed in a social media post that the airdrops would “not” end the deepening starvation and instead demanded that Israel “lift the siege, open the gates [and] guarantee safe movements [and] dignified access to people in need.
He claimed that airdrops are “costly, ineffective, and] can even kill starving civilians” (). He urged Israel to allow the UN and its partners to operate at the same scale in Gaza without imposing any bureaucratic or political restrictions. “A man-made hunger can only be addressed by political will,” he said.
He claimed that UNRWA has “waiting for the green light to enter Gaza” with the equivalent of 6, 000 trucks in Jordan and Egypt. He claimed that driving aid through is much simpler, more efficient, quicker, less expensive, and safer than airdrops, adding that it is also more honorable for Gaza’s citizens.
In response to the ongoing hunger crisis in Gaza, more than 100 aid and human rights organizations demanded an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the lifting of all humanitarian aid restrictions this week.
Source: Aljazeera
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