At the port of Ashdod, some thirty kilometres north of Gaza, Israel is blocking a shipment of United Nations food aid, intended to feed more than a million Gazans for a month. Ednews reports citing Le Monde.
On 13 February, the Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said that he had issued a directive blocking the 1,049 containers, which contain mainly flour, but also cooking oil, chickpeas, sugar and rice. The UN is due to distribute this food in and around the town of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's inhabitants are trapped between the Egyptian border and Israeli infantry.
These displaced people are virtually the only ones to receive international aid - which is inadequate - mainly via Egypt. For weeks, the UN has been warning of the risk of famine. Many of them are huddled together in makeshift shelters, while the Israeli air force is stepping up its bombardments in this area, one of the most densely populated on the planet, and the government is announcing an imminent infantry advance towards Rafah.