AFP
Palestinians hope for aid to arrive in Gaza, Israel continues bombing
Palestinians in Gaza are hoping for the arrival of humanitarian aid on Friday, after more than ten days of siege by Israel, which is still preparing for a ground offensive and continuing its bombings against the territory led by Hamas after the attack launched on the 7th. October by the Islamist movement. The Egyptian channel AlQahera News, close to Egyptian intelligence, affirmed Thursday evening that the Rafah crossing point, between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, the only one not controlled by Israel, would open Friday.Humanitarian aid convoys, waiting to go to this cramped enclave where 2.4 million Palestinians live, have been blocked for days in Rafah, as the conflict enters its 14th day.- Neighborhoods razed -More 1,400 people were killed on Israeli territory by Hamas men, the majority of them civilians who were shot, burned alive or died of mutilation on the day of the deadly Hamas attack, according to the Israeli authorities. According to the Israeli army, around 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in the counter-offensive which allowed Israel to regain control of the attacked areas. Hamas kidnapped 203 hostages, according to a figure revised upwards on Thursday. Côté Palestinian, 3,785 people were killed in the Gaza Strip, including at least 1,524 children, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health. Entire neighborhoods have been razed and are left without water, food or electricity, and more than a million people were displaced after the siege imposed by Israel on October 9 on the Gaza Strip, already subject to a land, sea and air blockade since Hamas took power there in 2007. “We need unhindered access and to deliver our vital aid safely. Time is running out,” called Unicef on Friday morning on X. In Cairo, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres pleaded Thursday for “access rapid and unobstructed humanitarian action”, calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”. American President Joe Biden, visiting Israel on Wednesday, claimed to have obtained from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi to “leave until “20 trucks cross” the border, a totally insufficient number according to the World Health Organization (WHO). At the Rafah terminal, Egyptians repaired the damage from Israeli bombings on Thursday in preparation for the passage of aid trucks, according to witnesses. And dozens of people gathered in the hope of its reopening. “We are ready with our bags,” assures Mohammed, 40, who works for an Italian institution and has been waiting for three days with his family to be able to leave. “Soon Gaza from within” – On Thursday, the Israeli army said it had carried out hundreds of airstrikes in 24 hours, targeting Hamas infrastructure, according to it, while it was still preparing for a ground offensive on the north of Gaza. Gaza riddled with tunnels where Hamas hides fighters and weapons. “You now see Gaza from afar, soon you will see Gaza from the inside,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday during an inspection of troops stationed near from Gaza, according to a video posted on X by army radio. Rockets were also fired from the enclave at Israel, according to AFP journalists. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), Israeli airstrikes killed 20 people on Thursday in front of a bakery in Gaza City. In the West Bank, another Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, 79 people have been killed since the start of the conflict in clashes with Israeli forces. Israeli attacks or attacks by settlers, according to Ocha. On Tuesday, Hamas accused Israel, which denied it, of having bombed the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza. This strike left at least 471 dead, according to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian territory. According to an American intelligence note of which AFP was able to consult extracts on Thursday, the toll is “probably at the low end of a range between 100 and 300” dead. This summary sent to Congress affirms, as Joe Biden declared on Wednesday, that Israel “probably did not bomb the hospital in the Gaza Strip”. Israel claimed to have “proof” of Jihad’s responsibility Islamic movement, another Palestinian movement classified as Hamas as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, in the strike on the hospital. On the diplomatic level, several countries are working to avoid a regional conflagration.- ‘Repercussions’ -Visiting Israel on Thursday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed support for the country but called for speeding up the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza. He then visited Saudi Arabia , where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called “targeting civilians” in Gaza a “hateful” crime, warning of “dangerous repercussions” on the security of the region and beyond. The president Egyptian and King Abdullah II of Jordan called for an “immediate end” to the conflict and accused Israel of inflicting “collective punishment” on the Gaza Strip aimed at “starving” the Palestinians and “forcing them to displace”. The German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Annalena Baerbock, began a new tour of the Middle East on Thursday. Welcoming “the signals” which give hope for an “at least limited” opening of the Rafah crossing point, she called on all the actors concerned to “overcome the last obstacles” to achieve this. According to the CNN channel, however, citing an unidentified source, this opening could be delayed. Tension also remains high on the border with Lebanon, where exchanges of fire are daily newspapers between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas. The Lebanese army accused Israel of having killed a member of a “team of journalists” on Thursday at the border. On October 14, a Reuters journalist was killed and six others injured from AFP, Reuters and Al-Jazeera in southern Lebanon. Sixteen Palestinian journalists have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war, according to their union.bur-oaa/jnd
2023-10-18 21:45:12
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