(Adnkronos) – Nations must “do more” to combat hunger and food waste and “do all we can” for war-devastated Gaza’s civilian population, Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday in an address at the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
“We must do more to combat hunger and food waste. It is a basic human right to eat and to live,” Tajani told the plenary session of the World Food Day event hosted by FAO.
“We must do all we can for the people of Gaza. We must open the Rafah crossing so that hundreds of (aid) trucks can enter. Italy will do its part,” Tajani vowed.
Italy is ready to send a further 100 tonnes of food to the Gaza Strip in “our largest humanitarian operation” since the start of the Gaza crisis in October 2023, said Tajani.
The government has already delivered some 2,300 tonnes of food, medical and basic supplies to the Gaza Strip through a scheme with FAO, the UN World Food Programme and the Red Cross and Red Crescent, and has airlifted some 200 Palestinian children for hospital treatment in Italy, according the foreign ministry.
“We are ready to welcome more sick children, including those suffering from malnutrition. I am proud to say that Italy is the country that has taken in the most children from Gaza,” Tajani said.
The 100 tonnes of food aid will leave Italy for Gaza via Jordan within the next 10 days, Tajani told the Realpolitik talk show on the private Rete4 channel late on Wednesday.
Tajani chaired a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that began to plan the Gaza food aid shipment – the biggest since the crisis began, he wrote on X.
Wednesday’s meeting also mapped Italy’s strategy to rebuild the war-wrecked Palestinian coastal enclave, starting with primary civil infrastructure such as schools and hospitals, Tajani wrote.
Tajani’s post underlined Italy’s unswerving commitment to an independent Palestinian state – an outcome which Israel’s current rightwing government opposes.
“For us, the “2 Peoples, 2 States” goal is not meant to be just a slogan, but the prospect of lasting peace and security for the entire region,” Tajani wrote.
