Italy to begin air drops of aid into Gaza, minister says • FRANCE 24 English

Italy to begin air drops of aid into Gaza, minister says • FRANCE 24 English

But first then, after Britain, France, and Spain, Italy has become the latest EU country to announce that it will be airdropping humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip in partnership with the Jordanian military. That announcement coming, of course, is humanitarian and rights groups have continued to warn that the worst case scenario of famine is playing out in Gaza. Despite these new aid deliveries, Human Rights Watch accusing Israel then of deliberately starving Palestinian civilians and gunning them down almost every day as they seek food. For more, then we’ll cross to our Rome correspondent uh Sema Gupta. Hi, Sema. So, what more do we know, not only about this announcement from Rome, but also some of the other measures that Italy has been taking uh to support Gazin civilians in recent weeks? Oh, well, the announcement came very clearly. Italy’s defense minister confirming that both the army as well as the air force will be involved in an operation uh to bring uh much needed humanitarian uh aid uh to the people of Gaza uh saying that there will be the they’ve started the process of the procurement of food stuff as well as the transportation to Jordan because of course as you mentioned they’re working with the Jordanian military on this and they will be having the first airdrops of food uh to the people of Gaza uh probably around August 9th. So this uh announcement coming very clearly from the Italian government. The Italian foreign minister as well Antonio Tayani confirming that some 50 Palestinians will be brought to Italy uh for medical aid. Now, Italy has been bringing in Palestinians uh over uh a number of over a period of time uh with effect from June it was some 150 Palestinians who got medical aid here in Italy. But now he announced that another 50 uh Palestinians including 20 children uh will be brought to hospitals throughout Italy uh in order to get any medical aid that they desperately need. And it’s not just them. also their family members will be brought in with them. So Italy then SEMA has of course followed in the footsteps of other uh European countries as I mentioned earlier with these aid drops and medical evacuations. But where Italy diverges uh is on the question of Palestinian statethood at least for now. So what’s Georgia Maloney’s reasoning uh for not following places like France and the UK on that announcement? Well, the Italian prime minister basically said that uh she agrees with the idea of Palestinian statethood, but her belief is that if in recognition of the state before it even actually exists, she believes could potentially be counterproductive. Um it it’s a pro the it would make it seem as if the problem is solved when it actually isn’t on the ground. So her idea is yes, I’m in favor of a Palestinian state, but it’s it’s useless to uh recognize its existence when it actually isn’t in existence. And that’s her view. Now, um Prime Minister Maloney has been a general supporter of Israel and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But in recent weeks and months, we have seen her coming out very strongly and expressing her concern and criticism of what Israel is doing. the is the Israeli government is doing uh particularly in the Gaza Strip. Now, she spoke to Prime Minister uh Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week saying that the situation is unsustainable and unjustifiable and called for an immediate end to hostilities there and an urgent need to guarantee the full humanitarian aid, unhindered humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. So clearly a very strong stance uh that we’ve seen uh develop in the last uh number of weeks on this issue and now of course this announce announcement of aid being dropped uh to the people of Gaza. Simma Gupta our correspondent in Rome. Thank you very much.

After France and Spain, Italy said Friday (August 1) it would begin air drops over Gaza, which UN-backed experts say is slipping into famine. The first drops could come on August 9, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said. “I have given the green light to a mission involving Army and Air Force assets for the transport and airdrop of basic necessities to civilians in Gaza, who have been severely affected by the ongoing conflict,” he added in a statement. FRANCE 24’s Seema Gupta tells us more.
#Italy #Israel #Gaza

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