2023-11-06 02:00:13
For the second day in a row, the Rafah land crossing continued to be closed to holders of foreign passports wishing to exit the Gaza Strip, following “linking their exit to the provision of guarantees to secure the arrival of wounded and injured Palestinians from Gaza to receive treatment in Egyptian territory.” Two Egyptian security sources and a third medical source told Archyde.com on Sunday that evacuations of injured residents of the Gaza Strip and holders of foreign passports through the Rafah crossing to Egypt have been suspended since Saturday.
A security source and a medical source explained that “the suspension of evacuations came following an Israeli strike on Friday on ambulances in Gaza that were being used to transport the injured.”
On Friday, the Israeli occupation forces admitted to bombing an ambulance outside the largest Shifa Hospital in Gaza, claiming that it was transporting members of the Hamas movement, which the movement later denied. The Israeli bombing led to the death of 15 people and the injury of 60 others, who were on their way to the Egyptian Rafah crossing, to receive treatment in Egypt.
In this context, Egyptian writer and parliamentarian Mustafa Bakri appreciated “the Egyptian decision to refuse to evacuate foreign nationals through the Rafah crossing due to Israel’s refusal to evacuate the wounded in Gaza,” noting in his blog post on the “X” platform that it is “a decision worthy of appreciation,” and added, “The enemy must realize Egypt is fed up with these criminal practices. The enemy that shed the blood of our people and killed our children must know that the entire nation is boiling. Enough silence. God is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs.
The Egyptian decision to refuse to evacuate foreign nationals through the Rafah crossing due to Israel’s refusal to evacuate the wounded from Gaza is a decision worthy of appreciation. The enemy must realize that Egypt is fed up with these criminal practices. The enemy that has shed the blood of our people and killed our children must know that the entire nation is boiling, enough silence, and God is sufficient for us…
– Mustafa Bakry (@BakryMP) November 5, 2023
A new war crime
For his part, the director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, said: “For two days, no injured person has left the complex to receive treatment in Egypt,” noting that some cases “died while waiting for their turn to leave the Strip.” In statements to Asharq Al-Awsat, Abu Salamiya held the Israeli occupation authorities responsible for the failure of thousands of injured and sick people to leave the Gaza Strip towards Egyptian territory to receive treatment, pointing out the inability of the Al-Shifa Complex, which is the largest in the Gaza Strip, to provide more than 5 percent. Only from his services.
The director of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex explained that the Israeli occupation forces’ bombing of ambulances that were transporting wounded people towards the Egyptian Rafah crossing came despite the medical authorities informing the Red Cross Foundation that the ambulance convoy would leave at a specific date and route. He considered that bombing “a new war crime added to the forces’ criminal record.” Occupation”.
Egypt has received dozens of wounded and wounded from the Gaza Strip since the beginning of this month, as the Egyptian health authorities prepared a field hospital in the city of Sheikh Zuweid, near the Rafah crossing, to provide urgent services to injured Palestinians, in addition to allocating Al-Arish and Ismailia hospitals to receive critical cases.
The Egyptian Minister of Health, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, announced on Saturday that Egypt’s hospitals are ready with all their capabilities to receive the wounded Palestinians, confirming that 50 advanced surgeries have been performed on the wounded from Gaza.
Abdel Ghaffar said, during a press conference in the Egyptian city of Al-Arish in which he reviewed the health conditions of the wounded Palestinians and the medical services provided to them, that Egypt “does not adhere to a specific number in receiving the wounded, but rather has the capabilities that make it able to absorb more of them,” noting that the small numbers that arrived He returned to Egypt for treatment because of “the other side and not because of us,” as he put it.
Political consultations
At the level of Egyptian political communications regarding the situation in Gaza, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry received a phone call on Sunday from his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, during which the two ministers focused on efforts and movements aimed at implementing an immediate humanitarian truce and ceasefire to protect civilians in Gaza, and the delivery of humanitarian and relief aid. fully necessary for the people of the Gaza Strip, according to a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
Shoukry also received his Venezuelan counterpart, Ivan Gil Pinto, where the two ministers exchanged visions and assessments regarding the security and humanitarian developments and conditions in Gaza, and their potential repercussions on regional and international peace and security. According to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, the two sides agreed on the necessity of reaching a ceasefire in order to preserve the lives of the Palestinians and provide protection. necessary humanitarian aid to civilians, and rejecting the violations and collective punishment policies carried out by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
A discussion session between the Egyptian and Venezuelan Foreign Ministers in Cairo (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)
Human needs
In the same context, the Egyptian Foreign Minister received Cindy McCain, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, and a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry explained that the meeting touched on the deteriorating conditions in the Gaza Strip and the increasing humanitarian needs of the people of the Strip in light of the continuing burden of the war, which requires providing those needs urgently to suit the needs. The size and scope of the humanitarian crisis the sector is currently witnessing.
Shukri noted the logistical difficulties imposed by the Israeli side, which hinder the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, including the repeated bombing of the Palestinian side of the crossing, which places additional burdens on Egypt that greatly hinder the arrival of aid, according to the statement.
Meanwhile, the National Alliance for Civil Development Action, the largest Egyptian grouping of charitable organizations, reported that it would send 200 trucks of humanitarian aid to Gaza this week as part of the second aid convoy, indicating in a statement that 50 trucks of humanitarian aid in all its forms were prepared on Sunday.
Pressure on Israel
Former Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister, Ambassador Hussein Haridi, believes that the Egyptian position has been focused since the beginning of the crisis on harnessing the Rafah crossing as a means to serve the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, indicating that the Egyptian authorities refuse to consider the crossing merely an exit for foreign nationals from the Gaza Strip, as long as it does not This is accompanied by facilitating the entry of aid and the exit of the wounded and injured to receive treatment.
Haridi added to Asharq Al-Awsat that pressure on Israel to provide guarantees that the exit of the wounded and injured will not be targeted should be the responsibility of the United States, pointing out that securing aid and humanitarian corridors and increasing the amounts of aid was on the agenda of the meeting of Arab foreign ministers with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. In Amman.
The former diplomat stressed that the American minister’s talk, which he described as “positive” regarding the importance of humanitarian support for civilians in Gaza, should not remain mere talk without real measures on the ground, stressing that the ceasefire will be the sustainable guarantee for the protection of civilians in Gaza.
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