Israel agreed to increase the amount of fuel that will be brought into the Gaza Strip, adding “the minimum necessary to prevent humanitarian collapse and the spread of epidemics.”
The Israeli Cabinet approved an American request to increase the volume of fuel entering the Gaza Strip from 60,000 liters to 120,000, even though the American request stipulated the entry of a quantity of no less than 180,000 liters, according to what was published by Israeli media.
All cabinet ministers voted in favor of the decision, with the exception of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
According to the Israeli newspaper, the War Council approved earlier yesterday, Wednesday, the decision to increase the amount of fuel, before referring the decision to the cabinet for approval following increasing American pressure.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the decision to increase fuel supplies to Gaza only allows for the addition of “the minimum necessary to prevent humanitarian collapse and the spread of epidemics in the southern Gaza Strip,” adding that the minimum amount of this amount will be determined from time to time by the Council of Ministers. War according to the humanitarian situation in the sector.
Last Sunday, Thomas White, director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, said on the “X” platform that Israel “reduced the amount of fuel allocated for humanitarian aid by half with the end of the humanitarian truce in Gaza, and this will cost more lives.”
On December 1, a temporary truce between the Palestinian resistance factions and the Israeli occupation ended, concluded with Qatari-Egyptian mediation and lasted for 7 days, during which prisoners were exchanged and limited humanitarian aid was brought into the Strip, which is inhabited by about 2.2 million Palestinians.
For 62 days, the Israeli occupation army has launched an aggression against the Gaza Strip, which led to the death of more than 16,000 Palestinians and the injury of more than 43,000, most of them children and women, in addition to massive destruction of infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, according to official Palestinian sources.