France, Germany, UK demand Israel reopen routes for aid to Gaza

The withholding of aid is believed to be one of the few points of leverage, besides military pressure, that Israel has over Hamas in obtaining a new hostage deal.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

France, Germany and the UK demanded on Wednesday that Israel resume the flow of humanitarian aid tinto the Gaza Strip.

The foreign ministers of the European Big Three claimed that 50 days after Jerusalem had decided to shut the passages, “Palestinian civilians – including one million children – face an acute risk of starvation, epidemic disease and death” as “essential supplies are either no longer available or quickly running out.”

Israeli military intelligence experts have suggested that Gazans will only begin to run out of supplies in another three weeks.

The withholding of aid is believed to be one of the few points of leverage, besides military pressure, that Israel has over Hamas in obtaining a new hostage deal.

The joint statement called Israel’s move “intolerable,” saying that “Israel is bound under international law to allow the unhindered passage of humanitarian aid.”

Hamas freed some 85 female and underage Israeli hostages seven weeks into the war, although until then, no aid had entered the Strip following the Hamas-led invasion and massacre of October 7, 2023. Hamas settled at the time for a temporary ceasefire, the release of female and underage Palestinian prisoners at a three-to-one ratio, and hundreds of truckloads of aid.

Under heavy international pressure, especially from the U.S., Israel did not stop the aid flow even after Hamas broke the ceasefire and fighting resumed, until this March.

Israel’s Supreme Court, generally considered far from favoring the right-wing government, ruled that Israel was not obligated to provide Gaza with aid under international law.

The European statement also slammed Israel for “recent strikes … on humanitarian personnel, infrastructure, premises and healthcare facilities,” without acknowledging that Hamas terrorists often disguise themselves as medical workers and hide command and control centers in such places, making them legal military targets.

While reserving almost all of their criticism for Israel for not doing what it allegedly should do in terms of protecting an enemy population, the European ministers noted that “Hamas must not divert aid for their own financial gain or use civilian infrastructure for military purposes.”

Members of Israel’s government coalition and the opposition both reject the idea of allowing aid into Gaza. It has been proven that Hamas steals the aid and makes hundreds of millions of dollars by selling to civilians what they should be getting for free courtesy of the international donors.

The army should control aid dispersal “in areas under full IDF control,” said several Likud and national religious ministers at a Tuesday evening Cabinet meeting.

Defense Minister Israel Katz also suggested that private American companies could be in charge of aid distribution.

Opposition Yisrael Beytenu Party leader Avigdor Liberman talked even tougher, posting to X that “We have to shut all faucets to Gaza. Without the return of all the hostages, no aid should be transferred.” He also slammed the government for continuing to let water flow into the coastal enclave, and, without going into detail, he claimed that Jerusalem was also allowing “150-200 million shekels every month” into Gaza.