Tel Aviv, Nov. 11, (dpa/GNA) – A designated “humanitarian zone” in the Gaza Strip is to be expanded and will include field hospitals, water and medication provision, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday, amid dire conditions in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
Aid organizations have repeatedly warned of starvation among the population, particularly in the north of Gaza.
The United States and Israel’s other allies have repeatedly called on Israel to open border crossings to aid deliveries.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for all crossings to be opened. “Never in the last 12 months has so little aid entered the Gaza Strip as now,” she said in a statement released on Sunday.
Baerbock said Israel had repeatedly made promises in this regard, but then “failed to keep them.”
This week, a 30-day deadline set by the US on October 13 comes to an end, within which Israel has been instructed to improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, otherwise US military assistance to Israel will be restricted.
Israeli authorities insist that aid deliveries are being looted by Hamas operatives, who then sell the goods to the population in an effort to entrench their control.
Palestinian residents say that there are no safe areas in the region, noting that the Israeli military has repeatedly carried out attacks in zones declared safe.
The Gaza war was triggered by the terrorist attack on southern Israel launched by the Palestinian militant Hamas organization and others on October 7, 2023, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and around 250 were taken hostage.
More than 43,300 people have been killed and over 102,000 injured so far in the ensuing Israeli offensive, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.
GNA