(Adnkronos) – ‘Food for Gaza’, which Italy launched with the UN, the Red Cross and Red Crescent and Italy’s civil protection agency last year “has never been managed by Hamas”, foreign minister Antonio Tajani told Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar, urging that vital aid deliveries resume under the scheme, which was halted in March.
“I insisted that the delivery of humanitarian aid from Food for Gaza to the civilian population be allowed. It has never been managed by Hamas,” Tajani told reporters at the foreign ministry on Monday, referring to a phone call he had with Saar late Sunday.
“Italy has ”always worked with the (UN) World Food Programme, with the Palestinian National Authority and with the government of Israel to help the Palestinian civilian population and we will continue to do so by sending food supplies and not only those,” Tajani said.
“The situation of civilians in Gaza and is dramatic, as Pope Leo XIV underlined,” Tajani continued.
“I hope that the decision of the Israeli government will allow us to bring in increasing quantities of materials for Gaza’s civilian population,”he concluded.
Israel says it will allow a limited amount of food into Gaza, ending an 11-week blockade that has brought the Palestinian coastal enclave to the brink of famine.
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told reporters on Monday that “the bare minimum” of food will reach Gaza’s population.
Israel’s military is “destroying everything that remains of the Strip”, Smotrich said.
Israel will take “control of all areas” of Gaza – most of which is now rubble – and will prevent Hamas from looting aid entering there, according to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
