Israel’s ambassador to Canada on Friday accused the United Nations of blocking Israeli aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza and denied Prime Minister Mark Carney‘s accusation that the Israeli government was violating international law by failing to prevent a “rapidly deteriorating” humanitarian crisis.
In a post on X on Thursday, Carney said Israel’s control of aid distribution must be replaced by “comprehensive provision” of humanitarian assistance led by international organizations. He added “significant” Canadian-funding aid was among the deliveries being blocked.
In response, Ambassador Iddo Moed said Israel “remains committed to upholding international law and serving as an active partner in facilitating the flow of aid into Gaza.”
“Throughout this process, however, United Nations bodies have not acted in good faith by failing to move and distribute aid in Gaza and discouraging other NGOs from taking action,” he said in a statement.
He further accused the UN of refusing to deliver essential goods to Palestinians from nearly 1,000 trucks recently facilitated by Israel, only doing so “after sustained pressure.”
“Israel has never interfered with nor blocked any aid, including Canadian-funded assistance,” Moed said.
The statement did not include any acknowledgement of the more than 1,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces while trying to access aid distribution sites since May, according to the U.S. human rights office.
Israel’s military has said it has only fired warning shots near aid distribution sites. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the U.S.- and Israel-backed agency overseeing aid deliveries, has said its workers have also fired shots in the air to prevent stampedes.
Moed added in his statement that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been criticized by the UN, “has made great strides in improving the efficiency and impact of the aid delivery program.”
He further said returning to a UN-led system would “endorse the UN’s complicity in the weaponization of aid by Hamas” and the idea that the aid delivery system “cannot be reformed nor remedied.”
Further calls to recognize Palestinian state
Carney’s post Thursday said that “Canada calls on all sides to negotiate an immediate ceasefire in good faith.”
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“We reiterate our calls for Hamas to immediately release all the hostages, and for the Israeli government to respect the territorial integrity of the West Bank and Gaza,” he wrote.
Israel’s parliament on Wednesday approved a symbolic motion to annex the West Bank. Annexation of the West Bank could make it impossible to create a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel, which is seen internationally as the only realistic way to resolve the conflict.
Carney said Canada supports a two-state solution, with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand set to attend a UN conference next week in New York on the issue.
The Centre for Jewish and Israel Affairs said Hamas does not want a ceasefire agreement and wants to retain power at any cost.
“This is why we see Hamas thanking governments — including Canada’s — for statements that embolden it to continue subjecting both Gazans and Israelis to further suffering,” said the centre’s chief executive, Noah Shack, in a statement.
“At the NATO summit last month, Prime Minister Carney was clear: a two-state solution requires the Palestinian leadership to recognize the right of the Jewish nation to live safely in our ancestral homeland.”
Moed said Canada must “maintain pressure on Hamas to release the hostages and to support a robust and comprehensive framework that ends this war and works toward a future for Gaza and the Palestinian people that is free from Hamas.”
Anand said it is “inexcusable” that women and children in Gaza are without adequate access to food and water.
“The Israeli government must allow the uninhibited flow of humanitarian aid to reach Palestinian civilians, who are in urgent need,” she said on X.
Their comments came on the same day French President Emmanuel Macron announced his country would recognize Palestine as a state.
Macron said in a post on X that he would formalize the decision at the UN General Assembly in September.
“The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved,” he wrote.
The mostly symbolic move puts added diplomatic pressure on Israel as the conflict and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip rage.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a social media post on Thursday that Macron’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state is “a slap in the face to the victims” of the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas that sparked the current conflict.
France is now the biggest western power to recognize Palestine, and the move could pave the way for other countries to do the same. More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state, including more than a dozen in Europe.
Canada’s NDP on Friday urged the Carney government to follow Macron’s lead and recognize a Palestinian state “today,” rather than at next week’s UN conference or through a vote in Parliament.
NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson, who introduced a motion in the House of Commons on the issue in June, said in a statement that such a recognition “will go a long way toward establishing the conditions for peace and justice for all in the region.”
“There is no two-state solution without two states,” she said.
The Palestinians seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and Gaza, territories Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that recognizing Palestinian statehood should be part of a wider plan for lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.
Following Macron’s comments Thursday, Starmer said Friday he was working with allies on the steps that were needed for peace in the conflict in Gaza.
“Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that. But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis,” he said in a statement after speaking with the leaders of France and Germany.
Canada was one of more than two dozen countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia, that issued a joint statement earlier this week calling for an immediate end to the conflict in Gaza.
The leaders of the so-called E3 group of France, Britain and Germany called again on Friday for an end to the war in Gaza through a an immediate ceasefire and said they were committed to supporting diplomatic efforts by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
“The humanitarian catastrophe that we are witnessing in Gaza must end now…We firmly oppose all efforts to impose Israeli sovereignty over the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” the leaders of the three European countries said in a joint statement.
— With files from The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters
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