Iran says dispatched humanitarian aid to Gaza via Egypt

Speaking to reporters at a weekly presser on Monday, Nasser Kanaani said the delivery of aid supplies for the Gaza Strip has been at the top of the agenda.

Highlighting Iran’s efforts and its extensive consultations with Egypt, he added the consignments of Iranian aid for Palestinians have been shipped to Egyptian ports after coordination between the Red Crescent societies of the two countries.

“It is not possible for Iran to send aid supplies to Palestine directly. The Egyptian government has also announced in its consultations (with Iran) that sadly the (Israeli) regime does not permit the transit of aid, but this has not prevented Iran from making efforts. Iran has made attempts and has sent aid through Egypt.”

Denouncing the Zionist regime for starving Palestinians and committing genocidal crimes in Gaza, Kanaani expressed hope that the international community would take serious action to deliver aid supplies into Gaza in the holy Islamic month of Ramadan.

A new report by humanitarian group Refugees International said the Israeli regime has generated “famine-like conditions” in the Gaza Strip “while obstructing and undermining the humanitarian response”.

The group’s research in Egypt, Jordan and the occupied territories revealed that Israel “consistently and groundlessly impeded aid operations within Gaza, blocked legitimate relief operations and resisted implementing measures that would genuinely enhance the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza”.

Refugees International also stressed that Israel was “demonstrably failing to comply” with legally binding provisional measures ordered on January 26 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to facilitate the flow of aid and lessen humanitarian suffering in Gaza.

Refugees International found that logistical issues within Egypt and Jordan are limiting the distribution of life-saving assistance to people in Gaza.

The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, mainly intended for commercial deliveries, lacks the capacity to process the substantial amount of aid the Strip requires. Egyptian authorities have also sought to deter a large-scale humanitarian response in the northern Sinai, a military zone.

More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 72,500 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.

The spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry also said the United States is the main party responsible for the start and continuation of Israel’s on the people of Palestine in the Gaza Strip.

“The American government stood by the Zionist regime in words and deeds,” Kanaani told reporters.

Since the beginning of Israel’s war in October, the US has been providing the regime with large-scale shipments of weapons, he added.

He noted that the US has been exerting pressure on the Palestinian people, slamming the “painful inaction” of the international community, particularly the United Nations, over the past five months about the Israeli regime’s brutal attacks against Gaza.

The Iranian spokesman further pointed to the “merely symbolic” move by the United States to airdrop humanitarian aid into Gaza and said Washington vetoed three resolutions calling for an immediate end to the war in the besieged strip and, at the same time, is sending its weapons to Israel.

Kanaani emphasized that the US resorts to “ridiculous and bitter’” measures in an effort to rectify and justify its warmongering policy.

However, the people of the world are aware of the realities on the ground and will never change their minds, he stressed.