Japan to provide $32M additional aid to Gaza

ISTANBUL

Japan on Tuesday announced an additional emergency aid of $32 million to the suffering Palestinians, stressing that the humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave of Gaza was “dire” and “cannot be overlooked.”

“Japan will implement humanitarian assistance in areas such as food and health,” said the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

Tokyo will continue to make “persistent and proactive diplomatic efforts to urge all parties to improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and calm down the situation as soon as possible,” it said.

The aid will be provided through the UN World Food Program, World Health Organization, UN Children’s Fund, and other international organizations, the ministry noted.

Since the Oct. 7 Israeli attacks on Gaza, Japan has provided emergency aid of $65 million and $10 million for the beleaguered Palestinians.

The Palestinian death toll from Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 has jumped to 29,878, the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave said on Tuesday.

The ministry said in a statement that 70,215 Palestinians have also been injured in the ongoing Israeli army onslaughts.

It added that in the past 24 hours, Israeli forces committed 11 massacres across the territory, killing 96 people and injuring 172 more.

"Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads and rescuers can’t reach them," the ministry said.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas in October, in which nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed.

The conflict has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while most of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Tel Aviv now plans a ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, where 1.4 million people have taken refuge.