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KANANASKIS, CANADA — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised in a telephone call Sunday to do more to bring aid into war-ravaged Gaza.
"I insisted and urged that humanitarian aid that is not reaching Gaza has to go into Gaza. He promised that this is the case and that this will be the case," she told reporters at a Group of Seven summit in Kananaskis, Canada.
Von der Leyen said she would follow up on the promise after the three-day summit.
She said she will seek to find out on humanitarian aid "how it reaches Gaza, whether it gets into Gaza, what we can do to make sure that humanitarian aid reaches its peak in Gaza."
Israel, after pounding most of Gaza into rubble following Hamas's attack of October 7, 2023, cut off all food and other vital supplies to the besieged territory for more than two months starting in March.
Amid a deepening humanitarian crisis, the United Nations warned last month that "100 per cent of the population [are] at risk of famine."
Israel eventually let in some aid but through a controversial US-backed initiative that has coordinated with the Israeli military , a setup that the UN and major aid groups said violates basic humanitarian principles.