Israel issues rebuke to Lammy over humanitarian aid claims
Foreign Secretary posted on Twitter about letter from UK, France and Germany
Israel has responded frostily to a tweet from David Lammy that followed a letter from Britain, France and Germany about the “unacceptable humanitarian situation in Gaza”.
The foreign secretary tweeted that the three countries were urging action and said that Israel “must implement” the United Nations winter plan “now”. Israel needed to “send equipment to guard against cold and flooding, give access to fuel, repair vital infrastructure, and get aid in”, the Foreign Secretary said.
But in a sternly-worded reply, Oren Marmorstein, the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that Israel was “facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and does not impose any restrictions on the quantity of aid entering the Strip. However, within the Gaza Strip, international organisations are failing to distribute the aid due to looting by Hamas, among other reasons”.
He added: “As US Secretary of State Blinken recently noted, Israel has responded positively to the majority of issues raised by the United States regarding humanitarian concerns”.
It was “disappointing that the Foreign Ministers of the E3 failed to address the October 7 massacre, and the daily attacks on Israeli civilians since then in their letter”, Marmorstein said, adding that “Israel will continue to defend itself and its citizens, always in accordance with international law”.
The spokesman added: “In any case, the letter will be answered through the proper official channels (not via Twitter)”.
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