Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, asserted on CNN’s “State of the Union” that there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Erdan stressed that Hamas should be held responsible for any problems in Gaza and that the situation there is not good.
There is no need for humanitarian pauses at this time, he said, because they would allow Hamas to rearm and regroup and prevent Israel from achieving its goal of preventing Hamas’ terrorist capabilities. He added that the number of trucks entering Gaza with food and medicines has reached almost 100 daily.
To ensure the return of the hostages captured by Hamas militants and to allow aid to reach Palestinian civilians, the United States has been putting pressure on Israel to agree to a humanitarian halt in its bombings of Gaza. On Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza announced that 9,700 Palestinians had been killed, with many more injured.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, at least 9,770 individuals, including over 4,000 children, have been murdered since Sunday as a result of Israel’s air and ground assault on the beleaguered enclave, made possible by billions of dollars in military support from the United States. Others, like U.S. President Joe Biden, have questioned the estimates since the ministry publicly identified many of the deceased as Israeli personnel last month. Those who have so far survived the Israeli onslaught are confronting inadequate power, water, and communication capabilities, as well as depleting supplies of food and medicine. Aid entering Gaza “is not near adequate to fulfill the exponentially expanding needs,” the UN World Food Program stressed.
Parents in Gaza are currently unsure of their ability to provide for their families’ basic needs, let alone whether or not their children will live to see another day. It wasn’t the first time the Israeli government has disputed the situation in Gaza; Erdan’s interview on “State of the Union” was just the most recent example.
During a Sky News broadcast in mid-October, Israeli official Tzipi Hotovely declared that “there is no humanitarian crisis.”
