EU to review trade deal with Israel

GAZA CITY: The European Union said on Tuesday it would review its trade cooperation deal with Israel over human rights abuses in Gaza. following a foreign minister’s meeting on Tuesday.

The bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said “a strong majority” of its 27 member states backed the move at a meeting of foreign ministers, adding “the countries see that the situation in Gaza is untenable… and what we want is to unblock humanitarian aid”.

Sweden said it would press the EU to impose sanctions against Israeli ministers.

“Since we do not see a clear improvement for civilians in Gaza, we need to raise the tone further,” said Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard.

93 UN trucks enter Israel

The Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories said “93 UN trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including flour for bakeries, food for babies, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical drugs were transferred” to Gaza on Tuesday.

The spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres confirmed dozens of trucks were allowed in, but spoke of difficulties receiving the deliveries.

“Today, one of our teams waited several hours for the Israeli green light to… collect the nutrition supplies. Unfortuna­tely, they were not able to bring those supplies into our warehouse,” Stephane Dujarric said.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said that the nine trucks cleared to enter on Monday were “a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed”.

He told the BBC that 14,000 babies could die this week if aid did not reach them in time.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, replying to a Democrat’s comment during a Senate Foreign Rela­tions Committee meeting, said he understood “that it’s not in sufficient amounts, but we were pleased to see that decision was made” to restart aid shipments.