Netanyahu: We will allow minimal aid to Gaza to determine the course of negotiations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the United Nations should stop blaming his government for the humanitarian situation in Gaza, after the Israeli military announced the opening of safe routes for aid to enter the besieged enclave. "The UN is making up excuses, saying there are no safe routes," Netanyahu said during a visit to an airbase on Sunday. "That's not true. There are safe routes. They've always existed, but now they're official. There will be no more excuses."

In this context, he continued, "We must allow the entry of the minimum amount of humanitarian aid required into the Gaza Strip to determine the course of the negotiations." He added, "We are fighting in the Gaza Strip, and unfortunately, we have dead and wounded there."

A limited number of trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday from the Zikim area in the northwest of the Strip and Kerem Shalom in the south, coinciding with the airdrop of aid to the northwestern areas, coordinated with the Israeli occupation. Sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the occupation authorities approved requests from Arab and international organizations to bring in aid via Egypt and Jordan, on the condition that it be delivered to international bodies in Gaza, away from the hands of the responsible authorities in the Gaza government.

Reuters quoted an official Jordanian source as saying that Jordan and the United Arab Emirates dropped a total of 25 tons of aid to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, in their first airdrop in months. The official added that the airdrop is not an alternative to delivering aid by land. Early Sunday morning, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced that it would implement a "humanitarian truce" to allow the distribution of aid, as it claims, in the Gaza Strip, starting Sunday morning. In a statement published on the X platform, it added that the truce would apply to "civilian centers and humanitarian corridors" in the stricken Strip. This comes in light of the occupation's continued war of extermination on Gaza, which has been ongoing since October 7, 2023, and in light of the escalation of popular movements and initiatives in various parts of the world aimed at pressuring the Israeli occupation to lift the siege on the Strip, open land crossings, and allow aid into the stricken Strip.

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The War of Extermination on Gaza | Limited Aid Entry and an Israeli Delegation in Cairo

Meanwhile, an informed Egyptian source told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that an Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo on Sunday to discuss coordinating the entry of humanitarian aid through the Rafah border crossing. According to the source, the Israeli delegation, which is of a technical nature, includes a number of security and military officials. The aim is to determine the mechanisms for transporting trucks loaded with humanitarian aid inside the Gaza Strip. The source confirmed during his conversation that the Israeli delegation discussed with Egyptian officials determining the routes of the trucks inside the Strip, in line with the dates set by the Israeli occupation army to halt military operations.

While it appeared as though the exchange deal was on its way to being signed, negotiations reached a dead end due to the occupation's insistence on its position on the points of contention and its government's unwillingness to show any flexibility on the matter. This was reflected in its decision to withdraw the negotiating delegation from Doha, a move echoed by the United States.

However, the Ynet website noted, in a lengthy report published on Sunday, that many reasons indicate that the current stalemate cannot remain in place. The first of these reasons is international pressure on Israel due to the worsening humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, the positions and pledges of US President Donald Trump, as well as domestic Israeli pressure. This was reflected in the occupation army's initiation of parachute drops of aid and the announcement of humanitarian truces in a number of locations in the Gaza Strip for the first time in more than a year.