UNITED NATIONS — The United States is watching to ensure that Israel’s actions on the ground show that it does not have a “policy of starvation” in the northern Gaza Strip, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council on Wednesday.

She told the 15-member council that such a policy would be “horrific and unacceptable and would have implications under international law and US law.”

“The Government of Israel has said that this is not their policy, that food and other essential supplies will not be cut off, and we will be watching to see that Israel’s actions on the ground match this statement,” Thomas-Greenfield said, in a ratcheting up of the US posture toward its longtime ally.

The United States has told Israel that it must take steps in the next 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave or face potential restrictions on U.S. military aid, US officials said on Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss expanding humanitarian aid to Gaza, three officials who had attended the discussion said, with aid likely to increase soon.

“Food and supplies must be surged into Gaza, immediately. And there must be humanitarian pauses across Gaza to allow for vaccinations and the delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

A deadly attack on southern Israel by Palestinian Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, triggered Israel’s retaliation in Hamas-run Gaza, sparking a humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave. Authorities say more than 42,000 people have been killed and almost the entire population of 2.3 million displaced.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the council that the issue in Gaza was not a lack of aid, saying more than 1 million tons had been delivered during the past year. He accused Hamas of hijacking the humanitarian assistance.

“Israel, along with our international partners, continues to flood Gaza with aid, but it will never reach all those in need as long as Hamas remains in power,” he said. “Hamas has weaponized the humanitarian situation.”

Hamas has repeatedly denied Israeli allegations that it was stealing aid and says Israel is to blame for shortages.

‘UNCONSCIONABLE’
The UN has long complained of obstacles to getting aid into Gaza and distributing it throughout the war zone, blaming impediments on Israel and lawlessness. The UN said no food aid entered northern Gaza between Oct. 2 and Oct. 15.

“Given the abject conditions and intolerable suffering in north Gaza, the fact that access is nearly nonexistent is unconscionable,” acting UN aid chief Joyce Msuya told the council.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military unit that oversees aid and commercial shipments to Gaza said 50 trucks carrying food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment provided by Jordan were transferred to northern Gaza.

Ms. Msuya said that throughout Gaza less than a third of the 286 humanitarian missions coordinated with Israel during the past two weeks were facilitated without major incidents or delays.

She said that on Oct. 12 a humanitarian team reached two hospitals in northern Gaza after they were denied or impeded by Israeli forces nine times. They transferred more than a dozen critical patients to Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

“These missions were completed amid fierce ongoing hostilities,” said Ms. Msuya, adding that drivers in the convoy “were subjected to humiliating treatment during security screening and temporary detention” at an Israeli checkpoint.

“Medical staff kept one child alive by hand pumping oxygen for over seven hours until they made it through the checkpoint,” she said.

Mr. Danon cited the recent medical mission as an example of Israel’s “comprehensive” humanitarian efforts, adding that “as always, we acted in accordance with international law, going above and beyond our obligations.”

Mr. Danon also spoke about the start of a second round of polio vaccinations on Monday by the UN children’s agency UNICEF and the World Health Organization, targeting 590,000 children under the age of 10 during area-specific pauses in fighting. — Reuters

ROME — Italy’s parliament made it illegal on Wednesday for couples to go abroad to have a baby via surrogacy — a pet project of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party which activists say is meant to target same-sex partners.

Since taking office in 2022, Ms. Meloni has pursued a highly conservative social agenda, looking to promote what she sees as traditional family values, making it progressively harder for LGBTQ couples to become legal parents.

The upper house Senate voted into law a bill proposed by Ms. Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party by 84 votes to 58. The bill was already approved by the lower house last year.

The legislation extends a surrogacy ban already in place in Italy since 2004 to those who go to countries such as the United States or Canada, where it is legal, imposing jail terms of up to two years and fines of up to 1 million euros ($1.09 million).

“Motherhood is absolutely unique, it absolutely cannot be surrogated, and it is the foundation of our civilization,” Brothers of Italy senator Lavinia Mennuni said during the parliamentary debate.

“We want to uproot the phenomenon of surrogacy tourism.”

Earlier this year, Ms. Meloni called surrogacy an ‘inhuman’ practice that treated children as supermarket products, echoing a position expressed by the Catholic Church.

On Tuesday, demonstrators gathered near the Senate voicing their outrage at the bill, saying the government was lashing out at LGBTQ people and damaging those who wanted to have children despite the fact Italy has a sharply declining birth rate.

“If someone has a baby, they should be given a medal. Here instead you are sent to jail… if you don’t have children in the traditional way,” Franco Grillini, a long-time activist for LGBTQ rights in Italy, told Reuters at the demonstration.

Rainbow Families President Alessia Crocini said 90% of Italians who choose surrogacy are heterosexual couples but they mostly do so in secret, meaning the new ban would de facto affect only gay couples who cannot hide it.

The clampdown on surrogacy comes against the backdrop of falling birthrates, with national statistics institute ISTAT saying in March that births had dropped to a record low in 2023 — the 15^th consecutive annual decline.

“This is a monstrous law. No country in the world has such a thing,” said Mr. Grillini, referring to the government’s move to prevent Italians from taking advantage of practices that are perfectly legal in some countries. — Reuters