The Israeli finance ministry has blocked deliveries of meals for Gaza as a result of the shipments have been supposed to succeed in the principle U.N. company for Palestinians, Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, mentioned on Tuesday.
Mr. Smotrich, a hard-right settler chief, mentioned in an announcement that he had issued a directive to not switch flour shipments to the company, often known as UNRWA, citing allegations that a few of its workers have been affiliated with Hamas, together with 12 accused of collaborating within the armed group’s Oct. 7 assault on Israel.
Final week, a subcontractor dealing with the shipments for UNRWA obtained a name from Israel’s customs company — which is housed in Mr. Smotrich’s ministry — ordering it to not course of any UNRWA items in its warehouse, mentioned Juliette Touma, an UNRWA spokeswoman.
About 1,050 containers — a lot of it flour — have been held up on the Israeli port of Ashdod, Philippe Lazzarini, the pinnacle of UNRWA, informed reporters on Friday. The quantity was sufficient to feed 1.1 million Gazans for a month, he mentioned. Mr. Lazzarini mentioned UNRWA nonetheless has sufficient provides to feed Gazans for 3 months, however solely as a result of the meals is now being routed by Egypt relatively than Israel.
Israel’s motion as soon as once more put it at odds with the Biden administration, which has criticized the Israeli conduct of the conflict in more and more blunt phrases. “That flour has not moved the best way that we had anticipated it could transfer, and we count on that Israel will comply with by on its dedication to get that flour into Gaza,” Jake Sullivan, president Biden’s nationwide safety adviser, informed reporters on the White Home on Wednesday.
Mr. Smotrich mentioned one other assist distribution mechanism could be discovered “that might not attain Hamas,” which he mentioned was using UNRWA as a “key a part of its conflict machine.” UNRWA has mentioned it’s investigating the allegations, however has stood by its work as important humanitarian reduction in a fancy state of affairs.