Caretaker Prime Minister discusses deteriorating catastrophic humanitarian conditions in Gaza with Dutch Foreign Minister

RAMALLAH: Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh met today with the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Hanke Bruins Slot in Ramallah, where they discussed the deteriorating catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. The two sides further discussed the need to put an end to the Israeli aggression and to bring in humanitarian aid through the opening of more crossings with the Strip. During the meeting, Shtayyeh praised all diplomatic efforts undertaken by the Dutch government since the first day of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. He also demanded more international pressure on Israel to compel it to immediately stop its aggression against the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the opening of more crossings with the Gaza Strip to ensure adequate humanitarian access, while emphasizing the importance of ensuring the adequate quality of the aid, and not just its quantity. Shtayyeh called on the Netherlands to recognize the State of Palestine and support its full membership in the United Nations, noting that a political solution must be developed within an international framework, following the failure to reach actual results on the ground through bilateral negotiations which have been launched in the past thirty years. The caretaker Prime Minister affirmed the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to establish their independent state within the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. He further welcomed measures made by the Netherlands to take punitive action against Israeli colonial expansion and terrorism. The meeting was also attended by the Netherlands Representative in the Palestinian territories Michel Rentenaar and the undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Amal Jadou. Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA