Gaza War: Blinken calls for “long humanitarian peace” in Gaza to deliver aid

The US State Department said on Tuesday that the administration of President Joe Biden has determined that Israel is not currently blocking aid to Gaza and is therefore not in violation of US law. but Washington admitted that the humanitarian situation remains dire in the Palestinian Authority.

For its part, the Hamas movement denied ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ President Biden in what the movement called a “brutal war of destruction.”

Hamas said in a statement that these accusations are believed by the facts on the ground and the reports of the United Nations institutions and international human rights and humanitarian organizations, which confirm that areas in the Gaza Strip, in particular the northern end of the Stri, has arrived. the brink of famine.

The Israeli army announced on Tuesday the opening of a new route for humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip following American pressure.

The army said in a statement, “Today (Tuesday) the Kissufim crossing was opened to transport humanitarian aid trucks.” According to the statement, “the aid entered the Gaza Strip after strict security checks at the Kerem Shalom crossing by security personnel attached to the border crossings authority of the Israeli Ministry of Defense.”

The aid entry process includes the delivery of “food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment to central and southern Gaza Strip,” according to the statement.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli media reported that Israel’s small security and political council decided to increase humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, as a result of the month-long deadline the United States gave Israel to settle the situation. to develop humanity in the Strip. , nearing completion.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a letter on October 13 to their Israeli counterparts that included a list of specific steps Israel must take within 30 days to improve the deteriorating situation in Gaza. They said in the letter that if this situation could develop it could affect US military aid to Israel.

State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patil on Tuesday, the deadline for the US deadline, declined to clarify whether those specific measures had been met. Instead, he told reporters that Israel had taken steps to meet the demands and that Washington would continue to assess the situation.

He continued, “We have seen some progress. We would like to see more change. We believe that without American intervention, these changes may not have happened at all,” adding that Washington continued to assess Israel’s level of compliance with American law.

Eight international relief organizations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, said in a report that Israel had not met the demands by the deadline.

In a statement issued later, Hamas criticized the Biden administration’s announcement that Israel had taken steps to improve the humanitarian situation in the Strip.

The Palestinian movement said it considers the assessment “proof of the full complicity of President Biden’s administration in the brutal war of extermination against our people in the Gaza Strip for more than a year and the acts of ethnic cleansing , massacre and starvation that have followed. in the Northern Strip for 35 days.”

The motion again accused Washington of “providing political and military cover and protection from accountability and responsibility by disrupting the mechanisms of international law, agreements and treaties designed to protect civilians.” , in a behavior that confirms his position as the main supporter of the fascist occupation. terrorism against our people and the people of the region.”

Biden, whose presidential term will soon end, has strongly supported Israel since Hamas launched an attack on October 7, 2023, and the Palestinian Ministry of Health says the war waged by Israel since then has until now exterminated more than 43,500 Palestinians in Gaza, as well as destroying… The division and displacement of the population.

Ministry spokesman Matthew Miller said in a press release on November 4 that the results on the ground were not good enough at the moment, despite the measures Israel has taken to increase access to aid.

Blinken also confirmed, in his meeting with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Monday, the need for Israeli measures to improve their own situation on the ground.

Patel refused to explain why Washington chose to make the assessment based on Israel’s measures to deal with the problems rather than seeing actual results on the ground, which US officials have repeatedly said is their measure.

Patel said Israel has taken steps, including reopening the crossing, waiving some customs requirements and opening additional routes to transport aid to Gaza.

The Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordination Unit for Government Activities in the Territories on Sunday published a list of humanitarian efforts carried out by Israel over the past six months in “highlighting recent initiatives and detailing -information on plans to support Gaza during the winter. “

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, welcomed the US State Department’s statement. He told reporters, “We are working closely with our allies in Washington. We have done a lot. We have been working hard to meet the humanitarian needs in Gaza.”

The deadline set by the United States expired a few days after experts in the field of global food security said there was a “strong possibility of impending famine in areas” in northern Gaza, while Israel followed up with a military attack on the Hamas movement there.

For more than a month, Israeli forces have been entering northern Gaza, attacking hospitals and shelters and causing the displacement of new waves of citizens in what they say is an operation which aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

At least two people were killed and six others were injured, including children and women, in a violent Israeli bombardment that targeted several tents in the “Al-Bassa” area last night in the Deir al-Balah camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip, at the same time. with intense airstrikes in the southern areas of Gaza City.

The attack caused the burning of tents and all the belongings of these families, most of them displaced from the northern Gaza Strip.

Witnesses reported that “the bodies of two martyrs were recovered as a result of the Israeli bombing of a tent occupied by people in the city of Deir al-Balah,” noting that the tent caught fire as a result of the Israeli bombing that targeted him.

The Israeli army forced the displaced people in three centers containing thousands of displaced people in Beit Hanoun in the northern part of the Gaza Strip to leave towards Gaza City and the southern Strip.

Witnesses said that the Israeli army forces burned the Mahdia al-Shawa School after the displaced people left, and they also fired at the aid that entered just a day before.

The Israeli army blew up residential buildings west of the Jabalia camp while airstrikes continued, while their artillery bombarded various areas in Beit Lahia and Qalibu Hill in the town of Beit Hanoun.

Six more people were killed in Israeli bombing of a gathering in front of the gate of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia project, while 4 others were killed and several others, including children, were injured in Israeli bombing that targeted a house. to the Qadan family in the town of Beit Lahia.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip says that 47 people have been killed and 182 wounded in various areas of the Strip in the past 24 hours.

Thus, the toll of the war in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023 has increased to 43,712 dead and 103,258 wounded, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

On Wednesday, the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, published a letter to one of the Israelis held by it.

According to what she published, this message was her first to Israelis, and according to the video that was published, the Israeli was “Alexander Turbanov.”

Turbanov says in the video that he has been suffering for more than a year from difficult conditions in the Gaza Strip due to lack of food, water, medicine, and lack of basic needs.

He said that the Israeli government’s measures to close the crossings and restrict aid to citizens in Gaza are affecting the lives of all Israeli hostages by saying, “My life is exposed to the threat of day by day as a result of the Israeli military work, which I fear will lead to my death in the end.”