Responding to reports that the Prime Minister agreed with President Biden that half a year’s flour would be let into the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu’s office published an explicit denial: “the effort to portray Israel as though it’s bringing in a supply of flour for half a year in advance is not correct.”
According to the statement, “Israel agreed to an American request to deliver an American delivery of flour which arrived in Ashdod port before the war, and which is meant for Gaza. The flour will be distributed gradually over a period of months, and not all at once as reported. In addition, flour deliveries will not change the number of trucks of humanitarian aid which were decided would enter Gaza. Furthermore, the war cabinet discussed and approved the delivery, and the expanded cabinet was updated on this decision.”
Netanyahu’s office’s denial comes in the wake of a report by Channel 12 News reporter Yaron Avraham, per which Netanyahu approved supplying Gaza with half a year’s fuel without updating either the cabinet or the public. According to the report, the flour would be moved into Gaza from Ashdod via the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Avraham stressed that Netanyahu denied the report that he agreed with President Biden on the delivery of 150 trucks of flour to the Strip and that this was only made known to the cabinet ministers during the visit of Secretary of State Blinken at the cabinet meeting.
