German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has described the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip in drastic terms as she called on Israel to open all border crossings into the coastal area to allow for aid deliveries.
“Never in the last 12 months has so little aid entered the Gaza Strip as now,” the German minister said.
Baerbock said Israel had repeatedly made promises in this regard, but then “failed to keep them.” The Israeli government must allow more aid to the suffering civilian population in the Gaza Strip, “without excuses,” she said.
“A large proportion of the more than 2 million [residents of the Gaza Strip] suffer from acute malnutrition and live in unimaginable conditions,” the minister continued. Nowhere else in the world are there so many children with amputations in such a small area.
“Large parts of Gaza are an absolute wasteland,” she said.
Baerbock said that, with winter approaching, nothing is more urgent than the release of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian militant organization Hamas and the delivery of urgently needed aid to the civilian population like food, water, medicine, hygiene products and tents.
“To do this, all border crossings into Gaza must be opened for humanitarian aid.” Israel’s right to defend itself is limited by international humanitarian law, and this includes ensuring humanitarian access at all times, Baerbock stressed.
Baerbock reiterated her call for a ceasefire: “Because without a ceasefire, the dying will not stop, the suffering will not end – the suffering of the more than 100 hostages and their families. And also the suffering of the families in Gaza.”
