Qatar has accused Israel of facilitating “the deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people” in a weekly briefing given by foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari. He called on the international community to apply more pressure on Israel, and said it was “painful” that the delivery of aid was still an issue.
In a statement issued after the briefing, Al Ansari said:
The deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people cannot be tolerated and the international community must stand against this issue.
Any aid provided to Gaza Strip is a very small part of what the residents of the strip need. There are two and a half million people living in complete absence of health and emergency services. More than one million people live in tents in the south of the Strip.
Aid should be freely provided without restrictions, as the state of Qatar has always emphasised.
Al Ansari said that 80 planes of aid had been delivered via an air bridge Qatar had set up to deliver aid, but “the challenges of entering this aid are great and ongoing.”
He continued:
So far, we have not seen real pressure from the international community to allow full and unconditional entry of aid. The State of Qatar, in cooperation with its partners, seeks to stop the aggression before the holy month of Ramadan. It is painful that the entry of humanitarian aid is one of the issues on the table.