Australia Says Gaza Situation Beyond ‘Worst Fears' as Pressure Mounts on Israel
Israel blocked aid deliveries to Gaza between March and May after it ended a cease-fire with Hamas. Since then, a private Israeli-backed group has run a system in which people go to a few sites in the Israeli-controlled areas of Gaza to receive aid. But hundreds of Palestinians have been killed at these locations, where Israeli soldiers have used live ammunition to contain unrest and disperse crowds of desperate people.
Aid groups have said that mass starvation is spreading in Gaza, and that the insecurity and Israeli restrictions have made food deliveries impossible. Haunting images of hollow-eyed, skeletal children have emerged in recent days from Gaza, where doctors say people are dying from hunger.
'Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel's denial of aid and the killing of civilians, including children, seeking access to water and food cannot be defended or ignored,' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia said in a statement. He called on Israel to immediately allow the United Nations and aid organizations to carry out their work safely.
Mr. Albanese's statement was the latest in a growing chorus of criticism of Israel, including from some of its closest allies, over its restrictions on aid deliveries in Gaza and its war in the enclave, which has been going on for 21 months. France on Thursday became the first Group of 7 country to announce that it would recognize a Palestinian state. 'Today the most urgent thing is that the war in Gaza cease and the civilian population be helped,' France's president, Emmanuel Macron, said.
A few hours before Mr. Albanese's statement, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada condemned Israel's 'failure to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza.'
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