Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said he had ordered flour shipments not to be transferred to the agency that aids Palestinians, citing allegations that some of its employees were affiliated with Hamas.
Mr. Smotrich, a hard-right settler leader, said in a statement that he had issued a directive not to transfer flour shipments to the agency, known as UNRWA, citing allegations that some of its employees were affiliated with Hamas, including 12 accused of participating in the armed group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
About 1,050 containers — much of it flour — have been held up at the Israeli port of Ashdod, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters on Friday.
Mr. Lazzarini said UNRWA still has enough supplies to feed Gazans for three months, but only because the food is now being routed through Egypt rather than Israel.
But their signals came before the allegations were unearthed, and the proposal, for now, appears to have been complicated by Mr. Smotrich’s order blocking the shipments.
Aid officials say far more relief is necessary to ease the humanitarian crisis affecting the more than two million Palestinian residents of Gaza amid dire shortages of food, water and medicine.
Roughly 1.7 million people in the territory have been displaced, many of whom are facing extreme hunger, according to the United Nations.
The original article contains 507 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Mr. Smotrich, a hard-right settler leader, said in a statement that he had issued a directive not to transfer flour shipments to the agency, known as UNRWA, citing allegations that some of its employees were affiliated with Hamas, including 12 accused of participating in the armed group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
About 1,050 containers — much of it flour — have been held up at the Israeli port of Ashdod, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters on Friday.
Mr. Lazzarini said UNRWA still has enough supplies to feed Gazans for three months, but only because the food is now being routed through Egypt rather than Israel.
But their signals came before the allegations were unearthed, and the proposal, for now, appears to have been complicated by Mr. Smotrich’s order blocking the shipments.
Aid officials say far more relief is necessary to ease the humanitarian crisis affecting the more than two million Palestinian residents of Gaza amid dire shortages of food, water and medicine.
Roughly 1.7 million people in the territory have been displaced, many of whom are facing extreme hunger, according to the United Nations.
The original article contains 507 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!