Humanitarian aid enters Gaza with daily break

Even though it was disapproved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli army put into practice, this Monday (17), for the first time since the beginning of the conflict, the “daily tactical pause” for the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid were seen passing through the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel on Monday, a day after the military announced it would implement the plan.

In a nearby field on the Israeli side of the border, dozens of crates containing aid – mostly food items such as onions, canned mushrooms, rice and bananas – waited to be loaded onto trucks to be transferred across the border to international organizations, including the United Nations. and other partners operating on the ground in Gaza.

On Sunday (16), Netanyahu said the daily break announced by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) was “unacceptable”.

“When the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] Heard in the morning reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him,” an official in the Israeli prime minister’s office told Reuters.

Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the right-wing Otzma Yehudit party, stated in a post on Telegram that the person responsible for the truce decision is a “fool” and should lose his position. He also said that the pause was not communicated to the prime minister’s office.

“Whoever decided on a ‘tactical truce’ with the aim of a humanitarian transition, especially at a time when good soldiers are dying in battle, is an evil person and a fool who should not continue in office. Unfortunately, this measure was not presented to the cabinet and is not in line with our decisions,” said Ben-Gvir.

The release of the first Army announcement in English, and the other in Hebrew, was followed by a government statement suggesting that Netanyahu only learned about the military plan through the press, signaling his disapproval.

Analysts interviewed by The New York Times, however, say it is likely that the premier was not only aware of the plan but also of the dissemination of messages in two different languages, with the first aimed at external audiences and the second at domestic audiences — while is pressured by the USA and other countries regarding the conflict, the premier depends on his coalition to remain in power.

“It’s classic Netanyahu,” Amos Harel, military affairs analyst for the left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz, told the American daily. “He has a mask for every occasion. For Americans, he needs to show he is doing more to get help [a Gaza]. For the Israeli public, they can say ‘I didn’t know’ and opt for plausible deniability,” Harel said.

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