Negotiations for a possible truce in the Gaza Strip are back on the table as Ramadan approaches. Yesterday the US armed forces made the first airdrops of humanitarian aid to the civilian population on the brink of starvation.
In the Egyptian capital, the delegation of Hamas is expected to give an “official answer” to the proposal drawn up at the end of January by the mediating countries – Qatar, Egypt, the US – and Israeli negotiators, according to an AFP source close to the Palestinian Islamist movement.
The proposal calls for a six-week ceasefire and the release of 42 hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Israel has more or less accepted the terms for declaring a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, meaning the ball is in “Hamas’ court”, a US official told reporters in Washington yesterday (2/3), who wanted to maintain his anonymity. The Israeli government has not confirmed the information.
Last Friday, US President Joe Biden reiterated that he hopes a truce will be declared until Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims, which this year begins on the night of March 10 or 11.
President Biden said he hoped there would be a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas by the time of Ramadan, and that the US military will airdrop food and supplies into Gaza pic.twitter.com/h47GGVnfdw
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 2, 2024
Over 30,000 dead
In nearly five months, the war, triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas in southern Israel, has claimed the lives of 30,320 people in the Gaza Strip, the vast majority of them women and children, according to the latest health ministry tally. of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
In the small coastal enclave, the humanitarian situation is catastrophic. According to Jens Lerke of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 2.2 of its 2.4 million inhabitants are threatened by “almost inevitable” famine.
The Hamas Health Ministry announced that 13 infants had died of “malnutrition and dehydration” in recent days.
66 US parcels
The great difficulties in delivering humanitarian aid by road to the enclave, which Israel has imposed a siege on since October 9, several countries are dropping quantities by parachute, notably Jordan together with France, the Netherlands with Britain, Egypt together with the United Arab Emirate.
The US carried out the first such operation yesterday: three military aircraft parachuted 66 “parcels” containing more than 38,000 meals. The operation was carried out jointly with Jordan, a US military officer clarified.
US aircraft carry out airdrops of aid to Gaza with 38,000 meals.
Three US C-130s dropped humanitarian supplies over Gaza.
The supplies included 66 total bundles – 22 from each aircraft – and included 38,000 meals dropped for people of Gaza.
The bundles did not include water… pic.twitter.com/7V3d5SRz02
— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 2, 2024
The war erupted after an unprecedented October 7 offensive by Hamas’ military arm in southern Israel centered on the enclave, where the Islamic Resistance Movement seized power in 2007.
The attack killed 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Another approximately 250 people were abducted and taken to the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli sources, more than 130 hostages remain in the Palestinian enclave – of whom, however, 31 are believed to be dead – after the release of more than 105 hostages, in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians by Israel, at the end of November, when a truce was declared week.
In retaliation for the attack, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, which it, like the US and the EU, describes as a “terrorist” organization.
Since then, the Israeli army has been relentlessly pounding the Gaza Strip and since October 27 has been conducting ground operations, which began in the northern part of the enclave and gradually moved to the south.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that the next target will be Rafah, in order to defeat the Palestinian Islamist movement in what he says is its “last stronghold”.
This prospect worries the international community, as 1.5 million Palestinians took refuge in the city, almost all of them internally displaced – many more than once -, who are now trapped on the closed border with Egypt.
“Non-existent” accusations
The UN Security Council yesterday expressed its “grave concern” over food insecurity in the Gaza Strip and called for the unimpeded and “large-scale” distribution of humanitarian aid.
Aid shipments, which require a green light from Israeli authorities, who imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip when Hamas took power there, arrive via Egypt at Rafah, but the amount is a drop in the ocean.
The situation is most alarming in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, where shelling, fighting and looting make aid distribution virtually impossible.
Scenes of the heavy #Israeli air strikes that targeted several areas in Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah cities, #gaza .
3.3.24 #GazaGenocide #GazaMassacare#IsraeliNewNazism #Palestine #GazaStraving#Flour_massacre #Gaza_is_annihilated #BBMzansi #ghosts #insiders #RealMadrid pic.twitter.com/AtMbHhizgY— Sara Biltaji ✨🕊 (@sara_biltaji) March 3, 2024
An aid delivery in Gaza City turned into tragedy on Thursday when hundreds of desperate people rushed the trucks carrying it.
Eyewitnesses and Hamas reported that Israeli soldiers opened fire on the crowd. A spokesman for the Israeli army acknowledged that there had been, according to him, “limited” fire against the crowd of its soldiers who were “threatened”, assuring that the majority of the dead were trampled due to panic or “carried away” by trucks.
At least 118 people were killed and another 760 injured, according to the latest tally from Hamas’ health ministry.
A UN team visiting the wounded at Ash Shifa hospital in Gaza City saw “a large number of gunshot wounds”. “To say that we attacked the convoy or that we deliberately shot civilians is unfounded,” Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said yesterday.
The international community wants an investigation and insists on calling for an immediate ceasefire.
“The whole world is hungry”
Airdrops of aid, or possible deliveries by sea, another option the US government has said it is considering, “cannot replace the necessary influx of aid from as many land routes as possible”, a senior US official noted yesterday.
The World Food Program (WFP) speaks of an “urgent need” for aid to reach “all” those in food crisis in the enclave.
“We will insist on telling Israel that more trucks should be allowed to enter and access roads to Gaza should be increased,” US President Biden said yesterday.
“We received two bags of flour from the aid that was delivered on the day of the massacre, Thursday,” said Hisham Abu Eid, a 28-year-old resident of Zaitoun district. “Are not enough. The whole world is hungry. Help comes rarely and is not enough.”
At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to be pressured by relatives of hostages to make a deal to release them. Yesterday, thousands of protesters gathered in Jerusalem, where a four-day march by their relatives, residents of a kibbutz on the border with the Gaza Strip, ended.
“We want them to return home”, to return “alive”, said a protester. “We can’t wait any longer.”
Source: APE-MPE, AFP
#Gaza #Closer #ceasefire #deal
