US Ambassador Links Release of Israeli Captives to Lifting Gaza Blockade
Washington (Quds News Network)- US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called on Hamas to release Israeli captives held in Gaza in exchange for lifting the Israeli blockade, which has been imposed on the enclave for over seven weeks.
Dr. Hanan Balkhy, the head of the World Health Organization’s eastern Mediterranean office, urged Huckabee to push Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to allow medicines and other aid into the Strip.
“I would wish for him to go in and see the situation firsthand,” she said.
“What I would like to suggest is that we work together on putting the pressure where it really belongs — on Hamas — to give us the opportunity to open up those humanitarian channels,” Huckabee said in response on Monday.
“We call upon Hamas to sign an agreement so that humanitarian aid can flow into Gaza to the people who desperately need it,” the US envoy continued.
“When that happens and hostages are released — which is an urgent matter for all of us — then we hope that that humanitarian aid will flow and flow freely, knowing that it will be done without Hamas being able to confiscate and abuse their own people by not allowing those resources to get to the people who desperately need it,” he claimed.
The UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory hit back at Huckabee comments.
“It is my duty to bring to Your Excellency’s attention Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute, which states that withholding humanitarian aid is a war crime,” Francesa Albanese wrote on X.
“This action would further aggravate conditions of life calculated to destroy the Palestinian population of Gaza. No one benefits from this—not the Palestinians, not the Israelis, not the North Americans—none of us.
“Together, we can stop this monstrosity.”
On Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz clarified and reiterated that no aid convoys will be allowed inside the Strip as a tool to pressure Hamas.
“Israel’s policy is clear and no humanitarian aid will be allowed into Gaza,” Israel Katz said in a statement on X.
Preventing humanitarian aid from entering the Strip “is one of the main pressure tools that stops Hamas from using this means against the population,” Katz claimed.
“In the current reality, no one is going to allow any humanitarian aid into Gaza, and no preparations are being made to allow any aid of this kind,” he said.
Humanitarian agencies have sounded alarm over the worsening crisis in Gaza, where Israel has enforced a blockade on food, water, fuel, medical supplies, and other essential aid since March 1.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) called it “likely … the worst humanitarian crisis in the 18 months” since the war began.
“Kids are eating less than a meal a day and struggling to find their next meal,” said Bushra Khalil, policy head of the aid group Oxfam.
“Everyone is purely eating canned food. … Malnutrition and pockets of famine are definitely occurring in Gaza.”
“Humanitarians have been forced to watch people suffer and die while carrying the impossible burden of providing relief with depleted supplies, all while facing the same life-threatening conditions themselves,” added Amande Bazerolle, emergency coordinator in Gaza for Doctors Without Borders.
“This is not a humanitarian failure — it is a political choice, and a deliberate assault on a people’s ability to survive, carried out with impunity,” she said in a statement.
Palestinian lives are being systematically destroyed as Israel’s continued bombardment of the Gaza Strip shows a “blatant disregard” for the safety of humanitarian workers, MSF warned.
“Gaza has been turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance. We are witnessing in real time the destruction and forced displacement of the entire population in Gaza,” said Bazerolle.
“In terms of humanitarian supplies … I mean, to say dwindling would be putting it nicely,” Liz Allcock, head of humanitarian protection ofMedical Aid for Palestinians, a United Kingdom-based humanitarian organization, told NBC News.
“We’re really scraping the barrel in terms of being able to provide anything of substance,” Allcock said, speaking from Gaza.
Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP), described the situation in Gaza as “dire and worsening,” with all WFP-supported bakeries across the territory closing after wheat flour ran out March 31. By early April, she said, the WFP had also exhausted its stocks of food parcels for distribution.
“Remaining stocks of hot meals commodities are being dispatched to the kitchens of partners providing hot meals,” she said, adding: “We have around 1,000 tons or less left for these hot meals kitchens.”
The WFP and its partners have 85,000 tons of food waiting to enter the enclave, she said.
The Global Nutrition Cluster, a coalition of humanitarian groups, has warned that in March alone, 3,696 children were newly admitted for care for acute malnutrition alone, out of 91,769 children screened — a marked increase from February, when 2,027 children were admitted from a total of 83,823 screened, OCHA said.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has sounded the alarm that medical supplies in the enclave are running low, while casualties continue to fill hospitals.
Etefa added that Israeli military assaults across the enclave have been affecting humanitarian groups’ ability to deliver aid.
Since Israel’s resumption of the war almost one month ago, there have been 1,800 recorded killings in Gaza, a majority of them children and women. More than 51,200 have been killed since 7 October 2023, with more than 116,900 wounded.
