2023-10-16 19:23:09
For more than a week, the war between Israel and Hamas has left more than 4,000 dead on both sides, including 160 foreign nationals, according to the latest report. While the Israeli army Tsahal has promised an imminent ground offensive, Europe will open a humanitarian air corridor to the Gaza Strip, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Monday October 16.
“The Palestinians in Gaza need humanitarian aid,” which is why “we are launching a humanitarian corridor via Egypt. The first two flights will leave this week, and they will bring humanitarian materials to Gaza,” said Ursula. Von der Leyen from Tirana, Albania.
Gaza threatened with humanitarian “catastrophe”
A few hours earlier, the WHO had warned that without help, a “real catastrophe” would occur within 24 hours in Gaza, besieged since the bloody attack by Palestinian Hamas against Israel.
READ ALSO >> Von der Leyen’s visit to Israel: how the Europeans are trying to correct the situation
Since October 7, a million desperate Palestinians have sought refuge in southern Gaza, trapped in this small territory under Hamas control, cut off from the world for ten days and deprived of everything. “There can be no justification for the terrorist act of Hamas,” said Ursula Von der Leyen, “for the brutal massacre of 1,400 people in Israel. Faced with this horror, Israel has the right to defend itself, agreement with humanitarian and international law.
“And right now, Palestinians in Gaza need humanitarian aid. They cannot pay the price for Hamas’ barbarity,” she added.
The UN Security Council meets this Monday evening
The UN Security Council will meet on Monday at 10:00 p.m. GMT (midnight in France) to decide on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the United Nations confirmed, with diplomatic sources speaking of two competing draft resolutions.
READ ALSO >> Information war: “A European social network is missing”
Russia circulated to Council member states on Friday a draft resolution which will be put to a vote and which calls for an “immediate, lasting and fully respected humanitarian ceasefire” and “unhindered” humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip under siege, according to these sources.
Arab League demands “immediate cessation of military operations”
During a meeting of justice ministers from Arab countries in Baghdad this Monday, the head of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, “demanded” Monday “the immediate cessation of military operations” in the Gaza Strip and the establishment of “corridors” to help the population.
11 Palestinian journalists killed in the Gaza Strip
Eleven Palestinian journalists have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, triggered after the Islamist movement’s attack on Israeli soil on October 7, the Palestinian journalists’ union said on Monday. In a statement, the union, based in the occupied West Bank, also indicated that “20 journalists were injured as a result of Israeli aggression” in Gaza.
TikTok deleted videos and directs related to the conflict
TikTok announced it had removed videos and shut down live streams linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict, days after an EU warning reminded it of its obligation to combat illegal content.
Since October 7, “we have deleted more than 500,000 videos and closed 8,000 livestreams in the affected region, for violating our rules,” TikTok said on its blog on Sunday, specifying that it had strengthened its moderation teams.
Blinken and Scholz in Israel
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel on Monday, as part of his crisis tour in the Middle East after the bloody Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel sparked a new war. Antony Blinken, who has visited Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar in recent days, has arrived in Tel Aviv and is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, according to an AFP journalist who accompanied.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed press reports on Monday announcing that he would visit Israel and then Egypt this week.
For Biden, the occupation of Gaza would be a “serious mistake”
Any attempt by Israel to re-occupy the Gaza Strip would be a “serious mistake”, said US President Joe Biden. After Hamas’ bloody attack on its territory on October 7, Israel launched retaliation against the Palestinian Islamist group with numerous strikes and ordered residents of northern Gaza to move south for a ground intervention.
READ ALSO >> Israel: tension rises at the Lebanese border
Questioned in the 60 Minutes program on the American channel CBS, Joe Biden assured that Hamas “does not represent all the Palestinian people”. But “eliminating extremists” is a “necessary measure.”
This Monday, a ship evacuating American nationals left Israel for Cyprus, noted an AFP team in the port of Haifa (north). The US Embassy in Israel said on Sunday that US authorities were assisting nationals “and their immediate family members, in possession of a valid travel document, to depart from Haifa by sea to Cyprus on 16 October 2023.
More than 160 foreign nationals killed
READ ALSO >> Tunnels and ambushes: in Gaza, the risk of a deadly guerrilla war for Israel
Many foreigners have been killed, taken hostage or have disappeared since the attack on October 7 by the Islamist movement Hamas against Israel, which left more than 1,400 dead on the Israeli side. In the Gaza Strip, local authorities reported 2,670 deaths in Israeli retaliatory strikes.
According to an AFP count, the deaths of more than 160 foreign nationals, many of whom also had Israeli nationality, were confirmed by the authorities of their respective countries. Among them, at least 30 Americans, 28 Thais, 19 French and 16 Russians died.
The Israeli army said Monday that 199 people were captured by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas during the bloody attack on October 7, according to an updated report.
Paris and Berlin warn Iran
Emmanuel Macron “warned” Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi on Sunday “against any escalation or extension of the conflict” between Israel and Hamas, “particularly in Lebanon”, during a telephone interview with his counterpart on Sunday, announced the Elysium. “Iran, given its relations with Hezbollah and Hamas, has a responsibility” and “must do everything possible to avoid any regional conflagration,” insists the French presidency.
Germany also called on Iran “not to add fuel to the fire” in the war between Hamas and Israel, warning of a “major regional escalation”. Anyone “who throws fuel on the fire should really think carefully because it is possible that we are facing a major regional conflict,” declared Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer during a regular press briefing in Berlin, asked about the meeting on Sunday of the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs with the leader of Hamas in exile.
#open #humanitarian #air #corridor #Egypt #LExpress