A truck carrying humanitarian aid, this Thursday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah-Gaza border.ALI MOUSTAFA (EFE)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattá Al Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan met this Thursday in Cairo to reject the “policy of collective punishment” against Palestinians in Gaza. Both leaders viewed the eventual forced relocation of thousands of Gazans to their territory as an “extreme threat” to regional security. The Jordanian monarch and Egyptian Rai had canceled on Wednesday the meeting they had planned in Amman with the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, after the massacre at the Al Ahli al Arabi hospital in Gaza. .
In recent days, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has raised the possibility that thousands of Gazan civilians could leave the Strip and settle in Egypt’s neighboring Sinai Peninsula. But Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority have opposed it because they believe forced expulsion would threaten to destroy the establishment of a Palestinian state on its pre-1967 borders of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
On the same Wednesday, Abbas also said that the forced expulsion of Gazans from the Gaza Strip was a “red line.” In Ramallah, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, he warned that Palestinians would not give up their land. A day earlier, King Abdullah had also expressed his opposition to the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt or Jordan.
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Egypt is preparing to open a humanitarian aid corridor to Gaza this Friday through the Rafah border crossing, the only one not controlled by Israel and connecting the Sinai Peninsula with the Palestinian enclave. The United States, Israel and Egypt independently announced an agreement on Wednesday to provide emergency aid to the enclave. The lack of security guarantees from the Israeli government had until then paralyzed the opening of the humanitarian corridor,
According to Ahmed Salem, director of the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, there are about 150 trucks on the Egyptian side of the border waiting to deliver humanitarian aid collected by Egyptian organizations close to the state of Egypt. However, President Biden warned that only up to 20 cargo vehicles would initially be allowed through.
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Work to repair the damage caused at the Rafah border crossing by the four Israeli bombings on the border since the beginning of the conflict continued this Wednesday, amid a significant deployment of Egyptian security services. The need for food and energy in the coastal enclave is considered very urgent as food and fuel reserves will soon be exhausted. At least four hospitals in the Gaza Strip have ceased operations, the Gaza Strip Ministry of Health announced on Thursday. The health centers in Beit Hanun, Al Durra, Al Karama and the International Ophthalmology Center in Gaza City are affected.
The ministry has also confirmed that the Turkish Palestinian Hospital, one of the few offering cancer treatment in Gaza, has virtually stopped functioning due to a lack of fuel and electricity. The emergency room is out of service. The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has demanded that Geneva, in addition to the entry of medicines and food, also allow the transit of fuel, which Israel rejects.
The day after President Joe Biden’s visit, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, also expressed his “unreserved continued support” for Israel this Thursday. Sunak met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. “We want you to win,” declared the British president, celebrating the imminent reopening of the Rafah border crossing for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
“I am proud to be here with you in Israel’s darkest hour,” Sunak said at a joint press conference with Netanyahu. “As friends, we stand in solidarity with you and stand with your people.” “I know that you are taking every precaution to prevent civilians from being harmed (…) and I welcome the decision you made yesterday, to ensure that the passage for humanitarian assistance is reopened,” he added.
More than 3,700 Palestinians have died in Gaza and its surrounding areas since hostilities began following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7. Around 1,400 deaths have been recorded in Israel, including more than 300 soldiers, and more than 200 people are still being kidnapped in the hands of Gaza militias. In the West Bank, 64 Palestinians have already been killed in incidents involving Jewish settlers and security forces.
Next invasion order
The Minister of Defense Yoav Galant, seen on the same Israeli battlefront, addressed this Thursday to the soldiers stationed near the border with the Gaza Strip, with a speech in which he announced an impending ground offensive against Palestinian territory “Now you can see the Gaza Strip from the outside,” he told them. “Soon you will see it from the inside. The order (to invade) will arrive,” said retired Gen. Galant.
Rocket fire from the Gaza Strip against southern and central Israel continued throughout the day, as did waves of Israeli bombing attacks on Islamic militia positions in Gaza. In one of these latest attacks, Jamila al Shanti, the first woman to hold a senior position in Hamas, died at home on Wednesday night. Al Shati was the widow of Abdelaziz al Rantisi, co-founder of the Palestinian Islamist group who was killed by Israel in 2004.
Israel fired artillery shells in the north of the country on Thursday in response to attacks by the Lebanese and pro-Iranian group Hezbollah. The Israeli army has indicated on social media that Hezbollah fired two anti-tank missiles from Lebanese soil at Kibbutz Manara in northern Israel. Shortly afterwards, Israeli forces responded by opening fire at the point from which the Hezbollah attack had begun.
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