AGI – The Rafah crossing It remains closed today as Gaza’s exhausted population continues to wait for humanitarian assistance. Until the international summit on the Middle East conflict called by Egypt on Saturday, Israel reiterated its intention to continue the land offensive and rejected the offer Hamas a ceasefire in return for the release of the hostages.
International humanitarian aid should be able to reach Gaza “tomorrow (October 21) or thereabouts,” says Martin Griffiths, U.N. emergency relief chief. “We are conducting detailed and advanced negotiations with all interested parties to ensure that a relief operation in Gaza begins as quickly as possible.”
Israel attacks Hezbollah again in Lebanon
New Israeli attacks at night against Hezbollah bases in southern Lebanon. The army (IDF) also announces that it has also killed a terrorist with a drone in Lebanon. The IDF also announced this hit more than 100 targets in the Gaza Strip overnight, including one where he stayed A member of the Hamas naval force involved in the October 7 massacres was killed.
This is what the IDF states Amjad Majed Muhammad Abu ‘Odeh, target of one of the nighttime attacks, was involved in the murder of Israeli civilians in southern Israel. Another nighttime attack on a Hamas air force team after it attempted to fire rockets at Israeli warplanes.
Guterres: “Colossal human suffering and suffering”
The targets also included a mosque in the Jabaliya neighborhood, which the IDF said contained Hamas assets and weapons and was used by Hamas as an observation point and base. The opening of the Rafah border crossing for the passage of humanitarian aid from Egypt has not yet been determined. The only access road to Gaza that is expected to reopen is bomb-damaged and dangerous. Egyptian excavators try to repair the Rafah border crossing in the hope that 20 aid trucks can enter, but noisy According to sources interviewed by CNN, the reopening will not take place today.
Israel has said it will only accept the transit of food, water and medicine. Fuel urgently needed to power hospitals and water filtration systems is not part of the deal. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in Cairo that the incoming shipments would ease what he described as colossal human suffering and suffering.
At least 4,137 people were killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began bombing the Palestinian enclave, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said. According to the ministry, another 13,162 people were injured in the Israeli attacks, which have continued since October 7.
Israel: Majority of hostages still alive
The “majority” of the approximately 200 people who were kidnapped in Israel by Hamas militants and taken to the Gaza Strip are still alive, the Israeli army said. Hamas has offered to release some hostages in exchange for an immediate ceasefire, but Israel has not yet accepted the proposal, according to the BBC.
Hamas is not holding all the hostages. Some were arrested by other armed militant groups, the British broadcaster recalled. Their continued captivity in the Gaza Strip is a complicating factor for Israeli commanders planning the planned ground assault into the Gaza Strip.
Everything ready for the ground offensive
Israel has decided to launch its ground operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli ambassador in Moscow told the Russian agency Tass. Aleksander Ben Zvi.
“I would say the decision has been made. Because the decision is related to the fulfillment of our tasks, which we have already talked about. It’s about the destruction of all Hamas terrorist structures and the release of the hostages. And therefore without.” Incidentally, this is not possible with a ground operation, so one can say “that such a decision was made,” said the diplomat.
At the same time, Ben Zvi did not provide any information about the possible timing of the start of the ground operation. “We must not forget that more than 1,400 people were killed,” said the ambassador, “we have to stop this, we have to solve this problem.”
Israel’s crimes according to 6 UN speakers
Six UN special rapporteurs accuse Israel of crimes against humanity in Gaza and say there is a “risk of genocide” in Palestinian territory following a 16-day siege of the Gaza Strip, military actions, arrests and killings. “There is no justification for these crimesand we are appalled by the international community’s inaction in the face of this warmonger,” the UN experts said in a statement.
They added that Gaza’s population, half of its 2 million people are children, has already suffered decades of illegal occupation, endured 16 years of blockade and now faces “a total siege coupled with impossible evacuation orders to respect.” which constitutes a violation international law.
Grandi (UNHCR): catastrophic military escalation for Gaza
Any Escalation of military activity in Gaza will be “catastrophic.” For the people who live there, it is warned the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “I can tell you with certainty that any further escalation or even continuation of military activity will be simply disastrous for the people of Gaza,” Filippo Grandi told reporters in Japan.
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