Netanyahu said Israel was not to blame for the worsening conditions for Palestinians in Gaza’s tent camps that have been hit with severe winter floods. His remarks came after the US-created Board of Peace — established under US President Donald Trump's plan to end the Israel-Hamas war and oversee Gaza’s recovery — said Monday that Israel's delaying of the entry of winter supplies into Gaza had “exacerbated the consequences of a foreseeable humanitarian challenge.” Torrential rain has battered the war-torn enclave in recent days, damaging tens of thousands of makeshift tents. Four people, including three children, were killed on Sunday when a large sandstone slab collapsed onto tents during the rains. Netanyahu said the Palestinian group Hamas is to blame because it continues to refuse to disarm, a condition of the deal announced by Trump, and seizes humanitarian aid in order to use it for military purposes. “Hamas alone is responsible for the suffering of the people of Gaza, and it is now cynically exploiting that suffering to shift blame onto Israel once again,” he said Tuesday. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the situation in Gaza was “intolerable” and demanded Israel end “arbitrary restrictions” on aid. In Washington, Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, the top Democrat on the Senate's foreign spending subcommittee, called for Israel to immediately allow winter gear into Gaza. “There are a lot of challenges when it comes to Israel and Palestine that are complicated, and fraught, and contentious,” Schatz said on the Senate floor on Tuesday. “But we should all be able to agree that repairing torn tents and helping people to dry out, and providing warmth to freezing children is a basic human obligation.”
