Israel, backed by the United States and ignoring international criticism, continues its attacks on Gaza after 30 days of land, sea and air offensive. The official goal is to eliminate Hamas, but the vast majority of the 9,770 deaths are civilians. Recent attacks include the Al Magazi refugee camp, where at least 40 people have died, according to local Hamas authorities. Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas does not rule out renewed involvement in the government of Gaza, which has been in the hands of Hamas since 2007. He said this after a reception this Sunday in the occupied Ramallah West Bank, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a firm ally of the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. Abbas links this possible compromise to reaching a solution that includes not only the enclave now at war, but also the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
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“We will fully fulfill our responsibilities within the framework of a comprehensive political solution that covers the entire West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip,” the president said, as reported by the official Palestinian agency Wafa. It is the first time during the current war that the Palestinian leader has expressed the ANP’s willingness to be part of the solution.
Dozens of Palestinians searched for survivors this Sunday in the rubble of several houses destroyed by a bomb attack in the Al Magazi refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip. MAHMUD HAMS (AFP)
A woman cries as she watches the search for survivors in Al Magazi refugee camp this Sunday. HAITHAM IMAD (EFE)
This Sunday, dozens of people searched for survivors in the rubble of several destroyed buildings in the Al Magazi refugee camp. MOHAMMED SALEM (Portal)
This Sunday, a man cried in Gaza’s Al Magazi refugee camp while a group of people retrieved a body from the rubble of a building destroyed by a bomb attack.MOHAMMED SALEM (Portal)
After an Israeli attack this Sunday in Gaza, two injured people are waiting for treatment in the emergency room of Al-Shifa Hospital. BASHAR TALEB (AFP)
An injured girl awaited treatment in the emergency room of Al-Shifa Hospital after an Israeli attack in Gaza City on Sunday. BASHAR TALEB (AFP)
Palestinian-Canadian citizen Seham al Batnejy and her daughter (in the background) await evacuation following the closure of the Rafah border crossing this Sunday. IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA (Portal)
A Palestinian searched for victims in the rubble of a destroyed building in Al Magazi refugee camp this Sunday. MOHAMMED SALEM (Portal)
After an Israeli attack this Sunday in Gaza, a girl is receiving medical care at Al Shifa Hospital. Abed Khaled (AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) and the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas at a meeting this Sunday in Ramallah.JONATHAN ERNST (Portal)
Panoramic view of destroyed buildings in Gaza City, this Sunday. MOHAMMED SABER (EFE)
In this way, the 87-year-old president wants to keep the three areas within the same negotiating framework. The Hamas attack was not only the worst blow Israel has suffered at the hands of a Palestinian militia in its 75-year history, but also boosted the popularity of the Islamic resistance movement to the detriment of an increasingly questioned Abbas. In response to the October 7 massacre, Israel launched its military steamroller, with no intention of remaining in the Gaza Strip but no clarity about who will determine the shape of that area when it ends its operation.
In the short term, after meeting with the US diplomatic chief, the Palestinian president called for “the immediate cessation of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza” and called for the “rapid arrival of humanitarian aid, including medical supplies, food, water and electricity.” and fuel,” said Wafa.
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According to the agency, the president accused Israel of violating international law in its response to the Hamas attack in Israel that killed 1,400 people. “How can we remain silent when 10,000 Palestinians, including 4,000 children, have been killed and tens of thousands injured, and when tens of thousands of homes, infrastructure, hospitals, shelters and water tanks have been destroyed?” Abbas asked.
A Palestinian photographer (center), who lost his son in an attack on the Al Magazi refugee camp, prays with others this Sunday in front of the bodies of the victims at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the center of the Gaza Strip.HAITHAM IMAD (EFE)
Amid the climate of unleashed violence, the Israeli government’s Minister of Cultural Heritage has spoken out in favor of the use of the atomic bomb in Gaza, where 29 soldiers have already died in the land invasion launched on October 27. This is Amichai Eliyahu, representative of the most radical and ultra-nationalist wing of the Cabinet, and he answered a question from a journalist on a radio station, reports France Presse.
In the same media, he acknowledged that in wars there is always a certain toll to be paid, pointing to the possibility that the more than 240 hostages captured by Hamas will not make it out alive. Almost immediately, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office distanced itself from Eliyahu and suspended him from ministerial meetings.
Dead hostages
According to a brief statement from the spokesman for the militia’s armed wing, Hamas accurately reported late Saturday that 60 of the captured hostages had died in Israeli bombings and that 23 of them had not even been able to retrieve their bodies from the rubble recover. Fundamentalist, Abu Obeida. However, the movement does not provide any data or evidence to confirm these facts. The existence of the abductees in the Palestinian enclave worsens Netanyahu’s delicate situation over time. Several hundred people demanded his resignation as they demonstrated outside his residence in Jerusalem on Saturday afternoon.
Citizens and emergency services are still trying to recover the bodies of victims from the rubble of Al Magazi camp, which marks the geographical center of the Palestinian enclave. It is therefore outside what Israel sees as the main battle zone, namely Gaza City, a Hamas stronghold and where the majority of hostages are feared to be held. The figure of 40 deaths in the hands of the Islamist militia is therefore provisional, according to health sources in the Gaza Strip government. The victims also include the family of Mohammad al Aloul, a photographer who works for the Turkish agency Anadolu, as he himself confirmed to the Portal and France Presse agencies. In the bombing he lost his four children, as he saw when he arrived at the hospital, as well as four of his brothers and their children.
The attack on Al Magazi joins the ranks of those carried out by Israeli troops against other refugee camps in recent days, or the attack on Friday at the doors of Al Shifa hospital, the main one in Gaza. In all cases, Israel tries to justify the deaths in the fight against Hamas’s political and military apparatus and insists that the population leave the areas being bombed. Doctors Without Borders with staff in Al Shifa spread their version of events on social media
Israel insisted this Sunday that Hamas uses hospitals in and around Gaza as part of its infrastructure and that it also uses the population as “human shields,” according to military spokesman Daniel Hagari. He named Al Shifa Hospital, Qatari Hospital and Indonesian Hospital. During an intervention before the media, he showed photos, videos and recordings that the army sees as evidence that the militia attacks Israel from health centers, that it sources fuel from these facilities and that there are tunnels and command centers there. At the same time, the spokesman explained the warning system with which they warn the population to leave their homes in the north of the Gaza Strip by dropping leaflets, sending messages to mobile phones or making phone calls. Hagari assures that Hamas is preventing the population from escaping and that it has one of its operations centers in the Jabalia refugee camp, which it bombed twice this week, leaving dozens dead.
“We were near the hospital entrance #AlShifa, inside the compound when the ambulance pulled up right in front of us. There were bloody corpses everywhere. Many died immediately, others were taken to the operating room. (Follow thread 👇) pic.twitter.com/RMqdFojXPr
— MSF Prensa (@MSF_Prensa) November 4, 2023
Closure of Rafah
The Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt remains closed for the second day due to the decision of the Gaza Strip authorities to evacuate the wounded and citizens with foreign passports, in protest against the Israeli attack on Friday on an ambulance convoy heading there. Yes, the trickle of humanitarian aid entry is allowed to continue. There are hundreds of dead and thousands among the families who, under the pressure of the Israeli threat, left their homes around Gaza City and moved to the south or center of the Gaza Strip, such as the Al Magazi camp area, where they later lived of injured victims of the army, according to Gaza authorities and humanitarian organizations that continue to report on the ground.
In the far south, on the border with Egypt, the final list of those authorized to cross the Rafah border crossing was published early Saturday by the Gaza General Crossing Authority. It contained nearly 600 names of nationals of the United States, the Kingdom of Great Britain, France and France of Germany, but no crossings were recorded that day. No further listing has been published since.
So far, only two Spanish citizens have been able to leave Gaza since Israel’s military offensive in Gaza began a month ago, but both were granted permission to work as workers for a UN agency and Doctors Without Borders. Spanish authorities have assured that around 140 nationals – plus a group of around 30 family members – are waiting to cross the Rafah border crossing, but at the moment it is not clear when they will be able to do so.
The post in Rafah opened its doors to the movement of foreigners and dual nationals for the first time last Wednesday, and during the three days it remained operational, more than 1,100 people were able to leave Gaza and enter Egypt, according to the count United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Egypt said on Thursday that it was working to facilitate the evacuation of around 7,000 foreign citizens from more than 60 countries stranded in the Gaza Strip. Since November 1, some wounded Palestinians have also been allowed to leave the Gaza Strip to receive treatment in Egypt, and in the first three days just over 150 crossed Rafah, according to OCHA and local Egyptian organizations.
Despite the suspension of passenger traffic through Rafah, humanitarian aid sent from Egypt to Gaza through the border post has not been suspended, although it still does not include fuel. According to Egyptian state television station Al Qahera News, which was stationed at the scene, 30 trucks carrying essential supplies arrived on Saturday and at least a convoy of 60 more trucks were being prepared to cross on Sunday morning. Since Israel allowed humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave on October 21, after imposing a total blockade nearly two weeks earlier, 451 trucks have been able to enter, mostly carrying food, health supplies, water and hygiene products, OCHA said.
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