(May 24, 2024 / JNS)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi agreed to restore the flow of aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during a telephone call with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday.

Egypt halted U.N. aid deliveries into the southern city of Rafah after the Israeli military took control of the Gazan side of the Egypt-Gaza border. In Friday’s call, el-Sisi agreed to let the aid flow through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing near the Egyptian border.

“President Biden welcomed the commitment from President el-Sisi to permit the flow of U.N.-provided humanitarian assistance from Egypt through the Kerem Shalom crossing on a provisional basis for onward distribution throughout Gaza,” the White House stated in its readout of the call. “This will help save lives.”

The Egyptian readout of the call said that the deliveries would consist of “humanitarian aid and fuel” and would continue “temporarily until a legal mechanism is reached to reoperate the Rafah crossing from the Palestinian side.”

  • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    “The U.N. World Food Program said Wednesday that it has handed out in Gaza in recent days a “limited number” of high-energy biscuits that arrived from a U.S.-built pier”

    – Ridiculous

    “Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters Tuesday that he did not believe any of the aid from the pier had yet reached people in Gaza. Sullivan said a day later that some aid had been delivered “specifically to the Palestinians who need it.””

    – Sounds like the general was reprimanded after his first comment.

    “American officials hope the pier at maximum capacity can bring the equivalent of 150 truckloads of aid to Gaza each day. That’s a fraction of the 600 truckloads of food, emergency nutritional treatments and other supplies that USAID says are needed each day”

    –Even if this was working at max capacity, which it definitely isn’t, it wouldn’t be nearly enough.

    "The WFP had warned this week that the U.S. project could fail unless Israeli authorities gave clearances and cooperation for alternate land routes and better security.

    Humanitarian officials and the U.S. say the sea route is not a replacement for bringing aid through land crossings, and they have repeatedly called on Israel to allow a steady large flow of trucks through entry points and to ensure aid workers are safe from the Israeli military."

    :/

    • rusticus@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      So according to your logic, SOME aid but not enough to cover the COMPLETE need is “ridiculous”.

      Is there any color in your world or is everything monochromatic?

      • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        What is ridiculous is that a small number of energy biscuits have made it through. I helpfully broke the quotes and my responses to each section out. Read it again with that in mind.

          • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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            7 months ago

            Wow you are so nuanced. Maybe you can explain why Biden has done nothing to stop Israel from massacring people in Palestine? What am I missing that I think it is repugnant to make half-assed gestures towards food aid, while on the other hand continuing to arm the aggressors, condemn any international attempts to prosecute, and order veto of any UN resolution meant to stop the genocide? lol

    • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      So even according to your quotes, food is reaching Gazans. As of Thursday, 1.2 million pounds of aid have been delivered to the pier of which two thirds has been distributed to Gazans.

      And even before the pier was built, the US said it could not supply Gaza by itself. The US is trying to ameliorate the problem, not solve it single-handedly. That’s why it’s important that Egypt agreed to open their crossing.

      • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        Of course the US can’t supply the need itself. Sending some energy biscuits that you hope Israel will allow through, is like offering a band aid to someone with a severed femoral artery. The idea that food aid is the solution to this crisis is itself very stupid, especially when the “lethal aid” keeps flowing to Israel, which they use to bomb refugee camps. You think there’s no pleasing me because I’m not satisfied with the food aid. What I am concerned about is stopping the genocide.

        • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          There are many Gazans who, unlike you, are also concerned about food.