Netanyahu says he is allowing limited aid to Gaza after pressure from US

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was allowing limited food and water into Gaza for the first time in 11 weeks due to pressure from the US, reported Reuters on Monday.

Netanyahu said he would allow nine trucks into the besieged strip for a population of more than two million people, in a move that US civil rights and advocacy organisation, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called a “completely insufficient, psychotic PR stunt”.

“The Israeli government’s decision to let a trickle of aid into Gaza - reportedly only nine aid trucks in a day - will do nothing to relieve the threat of famine facing two million Palestinian men, women and children besieged in Gaza. This is a completely insufficient, psychotic PR stunt by Netanyahu’s genocidal government, which is determined to occupy and flatten Gaza, and then expel any Palestinians who survive. The genocide - and our nation’s support for that genocide - must end,” Cair said in a statement.

Netanyahu said that US senators who have been supporters of Israel for years have told him the terrible images of people being starved by Israel in Gaza have caused a loss of support and have brought Israel close “to a point where we might lose control”.

“It is for that reason, in order to achieve victory, we have to somehow solve the problem,” Netanyahu said in a message that appeared to be addressed to hardliners in his government.

A resolution was introduced by 29 US Senate Democrats last week urging the Trump administration to use “all diplomatic tools” to stop Israel’s blockade of Gaza and allow aid in.

“Children are starving to death. They’re starving to death as we are here comfortably debating what we think are important issues,” said Senator Peter Welch.

“And it must be the effort of all of us to do all we can to bring this siege and this war to an immediate end.”