Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his decision to resume food aid was the result of pressure from some of Israel’s international allies.
Israel will ease its blockade and allow limited amounts of food into Gaza as its military begins extensive ground operations in the territory, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on May 18.
In a May 19 video statement posted on social media platform X, Netanyahu said his decision to resume food aid to the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza was the result of pressure from some of Israel’s allies.
Without mentioning specific countries, Netanyahu said Israel’s “greatest friends in the world,” including a number of senators, had told him: “We cannot accept images of hunger, mass hunger. We cannot stand that. We will not be able to support you.”
He said the situation was approaching a “red line” and a “dangerous point.”
“Therefore to achieve victory, we need to somehow solve the problem,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu said the aid that would be let in would be minimal. He said Israel would control all of Gaza and therefore prevent Hamas from stealing the aid, something the terrorist group has been accused of doing in the past.
On May 18, the prime minister’s office said, “At the recommendation of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], and out of the operational need to enable the expansion of intense fighting to defeat Hamas, Israel will allow a basic amount of food for the population to ensure that a hunger crisis does not develop in the Gaza Strip.”
At the end of April, the U.N. World Food Programme stated that it had run out of food stocks in Gaza, and U.S. President Donald Trump said he had urged Netanyahu to allow food and medicine to be delivered.
Rubio said he was troubled by the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Germany, France, and the UK had also called on Israel to allow the unhindered passage of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
Tom Fletcher, the U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, on May 13 told the U.N. Security Council that no food, medicine, or water had entered the Gaza Strip for more than 10 weeks.
