2023-10-20 04:00:57
Palestinians in Gaza are hoping for the arrival of humanitarian aid on Friday, following more than ten days of siege by Israel, which is still preparing for a ground offensive and continuing its bombings once morest the territory led by Hamas following the attack launched on the 7th. October by the Islamist movement.
The Egyptian channel AlQahera News, close to Egyptian intelligence, said Thursday evening that the Rafah crossing point, between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, the only one not controlled by Israel, would open on Friday.
Humanitarian aid convoys, waiting to go to this cramped enclave where 2.4 million Palestinians live, have been blocked for days in Rafah, as the conflict enters its 14th day.
Shaved neighborhoods
More than 1,400 people were killed on Israeli territory by Hamas men, the majority of them civilians who were shot, burned alive or died of mutilation on the day of the deadly Hamas attack, according to Israeli authorities. According to the Israeli army, around 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in the counter-offensive which allowed Israel to regain control of the attacked areas.
Hamas kidnapped 203 hostages, according to a figure revised upwards on Thursday.
On the Palestinian side, 3,785 people were killed in the Gaza Strip, including at least 1,524 children, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
Entire neighborhoods have been razed and are left without water, food or electricity, and more than a million people have been displaced following the siege imposed by Israel on October 9 on the Gaza Strip, already subject to a land blockade. , maritime and air since Hamas took power there in 2007.
“We need unhindered access and to deliver our vital aid safely. Time is running out,” UNICEF called Friday morning on X.
In Cairo, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres pleaded Thursday for “rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access”, calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.
American President Joe Biden, visiting Israel on Wednesday, claimed to have obtained from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi to “let up to 20 trucks cross” the border, a totally insufficient number according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
At the Rafah crossing, Egyptians repaired damage from Israeli bombings on Thursday in preparation for the passage of aid trucks, according to witnesses. And dozens of people gathered in the hope of its reopening.
“We are ready with our bags,” assures Mohammed, 40, who works for an Italian institution and has been waiting for three days with his family to be able to leave.
“Soon Gaza from the inside”
On Thursday, the Israeli army said it had carried out hundreds of airstrikes in 24 hours, targeting Hamas infrastructure, while it was still preparing for a ground offensive on northern Gaza, which is riddled with tunnels where Hamas hides fighters. and weapons.
“You now see Gaza from afar, soon you will see Gaza from within,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday during an inspection of troops stationed near Gaza, according to a video posted on X radio of the Army.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), Israeli airstrikes killed 20 people on Thursday outside a bakery in Gaza City.
In the West Bank, another Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, 79 people have been killed since the start of the conflict in clashes with Israeli forces or attacks by settlers, according to Ocha.
On Tuesday, Hamas accused Israel, which denied it, of bombing the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza. This strike left at least 471 dead, according to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian territory.
This summary sent to Congress affirms, as Joe Biden declared on Wednesday, that Israel “probably did not bomb the hospital in the Gaza Strip”.
Israel claimed to have “evidence” of the responsibility of Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian movement classified as a Hamas terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, in the strike on the hospital.
On the diplomatic level, several countries are working to avoid a regional conflagration.
“Repercussions”
Visiting Israel on Thursday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed his support for this country but called for speeding up the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
He then traveled to Saudi Arabia, where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called “targeting civilians” in Gaza a “hateful” crime, warning of “dangerous repercussions” on the security of the region and beyond.
The Egyptian president and King Abdullah II of Jordan called for an “immediate end” to the conflict and accused Israel of inflicting “collective punishment” on the Gaza Strip aimed at “starving” Palestinians and “forcing them to displace “.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock began a new tour of the Middle East on Thursday.
Welcoming “the signals” which give hope for an “at least limited” opening of the Rafah crossing point, she called on all stakeholders concerned to “overcome the last obstacles” to achieve this.
According to CNN, however, citing an unidentified source, this opening might be delayed.
Tension also remains high on the border with Lebanon, where there are daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
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