After the failure of the aid distribution process… Netanyahu attempts to minimize the shock

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted on Tuesday evening to downplay the failure of a US- and Israeli-backed organization to distribute humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, claiming a temporary loss of control.

Netanyahu’s remarks came at the International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism, organized by the Foreign Ministry in West Jerusalem.

In a deliberate policy that, according to the United Nations, paves the way for forced displacement, Israel has pushed 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza to the brink of famine by starving them by closing the crossings for 90 days to humanitarian aid, particularly food, according to the government media office in the Strip.

Beyond the United Nations and international relief organizations, Israel began distributing scarce aid on Tuesday, via the Gaza Humanitarian Relief Foundation, which is supported by Israel and the United States but rejected by the United Nations.

The organization is also known as the Gaza Relief Foundation, and isn’t supported by the United Nations, however, the Israeli plan failed.

Under the weight of famine, thousands of starving Palestinians stormed an aid distribution center, where the Israeli army opened fire, wounding several, according to the Gaza media office.

Defying the photos, videos, and reports from the United Nations and international relief organizations, Netanyahu said, “The lie is that we are pursuing a policy of starvation in Gaza”.

He continued, “Today, several incidents occurred (during aid distribution), and there was a temporary loss of control, but we regained control of the situation”.

On Tuesday, the Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip denied allegations by a US-Israeli organization that Hamas is obstructing the distribution of aid to Palestinians.

The office accused the organization of seizing international aid trucks.

This came in the office’s response to a statement by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Relief Foundation, which claimed that Hamas was obstructing aid distribution through checkpoints it had erected in the Gaza Strip.

In a clarification to local and international public opinion, the office posted on Telegram, “We express our deep astonishment at the institution’s updates, which included false allegations accusing Palestinian resistance factions of obstructing access to so-called safe distribution sites”.

He stressed that “the claim that the resistance-imposed barriers that prevented citizens from accessing aid is a complete fabrication that has no basis in reality and constitutes a dangerous deviation from the discourse of an institution that claims to enjoy humanitarian neutrality”.

The statement added, “The truth, documented by field reports and the Israeli media itself, is that the real reason for the delay and collapse in the aid distribution process is the tragic chaos that occurred due to the mismanagement of the same company, which is affiliated with the Israeli occupation administration itself, in those buffer zones, and the resulting rush of thousands of starving people under the pressure of the siege and hunger”.

Earlier on Tuesday, the media office said that thousands of hungry Palestinians stormed an aid distribution center in the so-called “buffer zone” in the southern Gaza Strip, and that the Israeli army opened fire on them, wounding several of them.

The office emphasized that the so-called safe distribution sites are nothing more than racist isolation ghettos established under the supervision of the occupation, in exposed and isolated military areas.

They are a coercive model for booby-trapped humanitarian corridors, used as a cover to advance the occupation’s security agendas and perpetuate a policy of starvation and extortion, especially in light of the systematic prevention of aid entry through official crossings and neutral international organizations.

He said, “The continued reiteration of the occupation’s allegations by the US-Israeli GHF and its adoption of its narrative has practically stripped it of its credibility and alleged neutrality”.

The office held the organization, along with Israel, morally and legally responsible for covering up the ongoing genocide being perpetrated against more than 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The government office also accused the same organization of seizing international aid, stating that it “with direct support from the occupation authorities, seized a number of aid trucks belonging to a humanitarian organization operating in the Gaza Strip, after misleading them into believing that the aid would be delivered inside Gaza in an official and coordinated manner”.

He added, “However, what happened later was that the organization, under the protection of the occupation, diverted these trucks to its distribution center in what are known as the buffer zones, and began distributing them to civilians who had been exhausted by the siege and systematic starvation”.

He continued, “This institution’s promotion of distorted narratives following this crime is unacceptable, and constitutes a distortion of the facts and a complicity with the occupation in misleading public opinion”.

The office warned against “attempts by some institutions to engage in politicized humanitarian processes that align with the occupation’s narrative and contribute, directly or indirectly, to legitimizing the siege, isolation, and starvation of civilians, instead of exposing these crimes and working diligently to end them”.

He stressed that government agencies in Gaza have never obstructed any relief efforts, reiterating his rejection of any aid provided under the umbrella of the occupation or in contexts used politically to exonerate the criminal and hold the victim responsible for the tragedy.

He called on all humanitarian organizations to adopt official crossings as the sole legal and ethical route for the entry of aid, “away from the routes sponsored by the occupation,” emphasizing the importance of working to document the crime of starvation and humanitarian collapse in Gaza, “not covering it up or colluding with its perpetrators”.

Earlier on Tuesday, thousands of hungry Palestinians stormed aid distribution centers set up by Israel in the so-called “buffer zones” in the southern Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army intervened and opened fire, wounding several, according to the government media office in Gaza.

This came after the Israeli military announced the completion of four aid distribution centers in Gaza, claiming they were operated by international relief organizations under the protection of a US insurance company in the Gaza Strip.