- ARAB NEWS
- 23 May 2025
Since 1975
DUBAI: UAE Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed held a phone call with his Israeli counterpart during which an agreement was reached to allow the delivery of “urgent humanitarian aid” to the besieged Gaza Strip.
“UAE Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed held a phone call with Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar which led to an agreement to allow the delivery of urgent humanitarian aid from the United Arab Emirates,” according to a statement on WAM News Agency issued on Wednesday.
“The aid will address the food needs of approximately 15,000 civilians in the Gaza Strip in the initial phase,” it added.
The initiative will also provide “essential supplies to support the operation of bakeries, as well as critical items for infant care, while ensuring a continuous supply to meet the ongoing needs of civilians.”
Israel has come under international pressure to allow aid into Gaza, where humanitarian agencies say a total blockade imposed on March 2 has sparked critical food and medicine shortages.
Israel said 93 aid trucks had entered Gaza from Israel on Tuesday, but the United Nations said the aid had been held up.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week it was necessary for Israel to prevent famine in Gaza for “practical and diplomatic reasons”, after his government announced it would allow limited aid in.
Meanwhile, the MSF aid group said on Wednesday that the amount of aid Israel has started to allow into the Gaza Strip is not nearly enough and is “a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over.”
“The Israeli authorities’ decision to allow a ridiculously inadequate amount of aid into Gaza after months of an air-tight siege signals their intention to avoid the accusation of starving people in Gaza, while in fact keeping them barely surviving,” said Pascale Coissard, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) emergency coordinator in Gaza’s Khan Younis.
(With input from AFP)
