Fierce fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas’ military wing continues in Gaza Stripwhere, following several days of a complete blockade of the enclave, over three hundred pallets of humanitarian aid were unloaded, for the first time, at the temporary dock set up by the US military.
“Over 300 pallets with humanitarian aid”the first to enter the enclave through the temporary dock installed by the US military in the Gaza Strip, it was possible to disembark, the Israeli armed forces announced.
On her part, Hamas emphasized in its own statement that “no aid delivery route, including the dock, is an alternative to land routes under Palestinian supervision.”
After several days of humanitarian aid being blocked from reaching the besieged Palestinian enclave where famine is at risk, the US military announced on Friday that “approximately 500 tonnes (of aid) will be delivered within the next few days”.
London announced for its part that a cargo of British humanitarian aid was “delivered” to the Gaza coast, simultaneously “with the help of the US and the United Arab Emirates” through the sea corridor from Cyprus, while France said that a Navy ship which had sailed from Cyprus unloads at the artificial dock.
At the same time, the Israeli army carried out new bombings in Rafah, where according to the Hamas Health Ministry, two deaths were reported in the Berbera refugee camp, in the central part of the city.
In the eighth month of the war with Hamas, the Israeli armed forces announced yesterday that they had found the bodies of three Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7 in the Gaza Strip and repatriated them.
The hostages were “taken hostage” and “brutally murdered” by Hamas as they tried to leave the Nova music festival in southern Israel, Israeli military spokesman Major General Daniel Hagari said.
At the same time, the Israeli army reported yesterday that “probably the toughest” battles are taking place in Jabalia since the start of its ground operations in the enclave at the end of October.
Six people were killed when their house was shelled in this area, according to the Palestinian Civil Protection.
The Israeli military said it had completed an operation in the Zaitoun district of Gaza City (north) following a week of “precision raids” in which “over 90 terrorists” were killed, it said.
More than 35,300 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, have been killed since the outbreak of war, according to data from Hamas’ health ministry.
At the same time, a local official of the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Jenin, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, was killed in an Israeli airstrike, this movement announced today, while the same information was announced by the Israeli armed forces and the Palestinian Authority.
Appeal of 13 countries
Israel made clear its intention to “intensify” the ground operation with the stated goal of wiping out the “last” ranks of Hamas, despite the concerns of the international community regarding the fate of the hundreds of thousands of civilians who fled to that city.
Thirteen countries—Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Britain, Australia, South Korea, and seven EU member states (Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden) joined in calling for no land large-scale attack on Rafah, but the Israeli prime minister describes this operation as “decisive”.
In their joint appeal the 13 countries also call for “additional efforts” to increase the flow of international aid “through all crossing points, including the Rafah”.
Its key international ally Washington, which also opposes launching a full-scale ground offensive in Rafah, announced a visit by the White House national security adviser to Israel for talks tomorrow Sunday, following a stop in Saudi Arabia today.
Following the May 7 deployment of Israeli army units to the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, the Israeli and Egyptian governments have blamed each other for closing the crossing, which is crucial for humanitarian aid. Traditions also face many problems through the Kerem Shalom and Eretz passages.
With this background, Washington announced yesterday that it hastily removed 17 American doctors who were stranded in the Palestinian enclave.
“The world is terrified”
After Israel’s military ordered civilians to urgently leave eastern Rafah on May 6 in anticipation of a full-scale ground offensive, “640,000 people” have fled, including “40,000 on May 16,” according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). UN.
Of the 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, regarding 1.4 million, residents and mainly displaced by the hostilities, were as before in Rafah, on the closed border with Egypt.
The war broke out on October 7, when the military arm of Hamas and other Palestinian organizations unleashed an unprecedented attack on southern areas of Israeli territory, killing more than 1,170 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally. based on official Israeli data.
Of the 252 mostly Israelis or dual nationals abducted that day, 125 remain hostages in the enclave, but 37 of them are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli military.
In the Gaza Strip, according to official figures, 279 Israeli soldiers have been killed since ground operations began in late October in the enclave, where Hamas – designated a terrorist organization by Israel, the US and the EU – took power in 2007.
Source: RES-MPE
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