2023-12-19 01:29:00
Austin supports Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip
The Secretary of Defense of the United States, Lloyd Austin, ratified this Monday in Tel Aviv military aid to Israel and support for its offensive against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but called for increasing aid to alleviate the humanitarian crisis. suffered by the civilian population of the enclave subjected to more than two months of siege and Israeli bombing.
“We will continue to provide Israel with the equipment it needs to defend Israel, including critical munitions, tactical vehicles and air defense systems,” Austin said in a statement after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
During a joint conference with his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, from Tel Aviv, Austin referred to Israel as Washington’s “best friend” and spoke about the times of the offensive in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinians dead in bombings and combats are now approaching 20,000.
“As for the timetable, this is Israel’s operation and I am not here to dictate deadlines or terms,” clarified the official from President Joe Biden’s administration.
Gallant stated that “the war will take time” and that “in the end we will achieve our objectives”: destroy Hamas and “rescue the hostages” held by the Islamist movement.
Despite the multiplication of calls for a ceasefire, even from Israel’s traditional allies such as Germany and the United Kingdom, Washington maintains its support for the Israeli government.
The new escalation of violence began on October 7, when militants from Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups infiltrated Israel from Gaza, murdered 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 240 hostages, including twenty Argentines.
More than 80 hostages were freed last month under a week-long truce brokered by Qatar, the United States and Egypt in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian women and teenagers imprisoned in Israel.
The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement, the Ezzedin al Qasam brigades, released this Monday an video in which three elderly men appear, presented as Israelis held in Gaza, asking the Israeli authorities to do everything possible to secure their release.
The Israeli air and ground offensive in Gaza has caused the death of at least 19,453 people, mostly civilians, according to figures updated today by the Ministry of Health of the Hamas-ruled enclave.
Photo: AFP
The Ministry of Health reported that 110 people were killed in the last 24 hours in Israeli bombings in Jabaliya, northern Gaza.
In the south, clouds of smoke rose in the morning over the town of Khan Yunis after Israeli attacks, according to images from the AFP news agency.
Nearly 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people were forced to flee their homes and much of the northern part of the territory was destroyed.
The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) today accused the Israeli Government of using “the starvation of civilians as a method of war in the occupied Gaza Strip, which constitutes a war crime.”
Israel reacted by calling the human rights group an “anti-Semitic and anti-Israel organization.”
The entry of international aid for the Palestinians of Gaza is subject to Israeli authorization and arrives in dribs and drabs.
Austin highlighted the need to “provide more humanitarian aid to the nearly two million displaced people in Gaza” and to “distribute it better.”
The Israeli Government announced today that 122 trucks entered the territory the day before from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing and another 79 through the Kerem Shalom crossing, which Israel agreed to open last week under an agreement with the United States.
Meanwhile, commercial trucks that are not part of a humanitarian convoy entered the Gaza Strip for the first time since the start of the war, the United States reported today.
Several hospitals in the Palestinian territory were affected by the fighting, despite the presence of patients and displaced people. Israel accuses Hamas of using them as bases, which the Islamist movement denies.
The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday denounced the “actual destruction” of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, in the north of the Strip.
Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis were targeted yesterday and today, according to Hamas.
Despite international pressure to achieve a new ceasefire, Netanyahu declared that it is necessary to “maintain military pressure” to end Hamas.
According to the military, 127 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since ground operations began on October 27.
On Friday it emerged that Israeli military forces “mistakenly” killed three Hamas hostages who were trying to escape, after mistaking them for Palestinian fighters.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, today criticized the “terrible lack of distinction in Israel’s military operation in Gaza.” “This has to stop. A humanitarian pause is urgently needed,” he added.
Photo: AFP
Qatar, the main mediator between Israel and Hamas along with Egypt and the United States, assured that “diplomatic efforts to reestablish a humanitarian pause” such as the one that took place in the last week of November and allowed the release of some 80 Israeli hostages in exchange continue. of the release of Palestinian prisoners.
A Hamas member indicated today that the conditions “are clear: a complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of tanks from the cities, the opening of the road between the north and the south, the end of the siege, the normal entry of aid throughout Gaza without restrictions,” AFP reported.
Regarding the day after the war in Gaza, Austin once again repeated the US will to guarantee a “two-state” solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, that is, the creation of a Palestinian State.
“The United States continues to believe (…) that both Israelis and Palestinians are interested in moving towards two states, living side by side and in mutual security”he claimed.
The UN decided in 1947 to divide Palestine, which was then under British control, into two states: one for the Arabs or Palestinians and another for Jews, Israel, which was created the following year.
The Palestinians claim the territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza to found their state, but Israel refuses to withdraw its colonies from the first two, which are illegal under international law.
Different international voices warned about a potential regional escalation of the conflict due to the continuity of the bombings by the Lebanese organization Hezbollah against northern Israel, and the drone attacks by the Houthi rebels of Yemen.
“We ask Hezbollah not to do things that could provoke a broader conflict,” Austin said.
After several attacks last week, the Yemeni group close to Iran today claimed responsibility for two more attacks against ships “linked to Israel” in the Red Sea, in solidarity with Gaza, and several companies announced that they will avoid this important commercial route as a result of these attacks.
Meanwhile, Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart about the need to take “urgent measures to stabilize” the other Palestinian territory, the West Bank, which is occupied by Israeli settlers “who exercise violence” and “must be held accountable.”
Last month, the United States approved sanctioning Israeli settlers, and the United Kingdom followed suit last week.
Last week, the European Union (EU) and a dozen countries, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, asked Israel to take “immediate and concrete measures” to end this violence.
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