2023-12-29 01:00:00
Nearly two million Gazans have been driven from their homes by the war between Israel and Hamas, 85% of all of Gaza, according to the UN. And 40% of its population is now at risk of famine, the agency insists. The dead in the strip are also more than 21,300, according to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian enclave. But only now, with these figures that hide so many names, a new ball of oxygen begins to emerge: Israel gives its approval “in principle” to Cyprus to open a maritime corridor between the EU member island and the strip.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed it yesterday: “In principle there is authorization to use this route [marítima], but there are still some practical problems to be solved.” There is agreement on Israeli supervision. And it is known key.
Also read Alexis Rodríguez-Rata
The Israeli Government raises its tone against Lebanon and warns it that it will take measures if it does not act against Hizbullah
It is hoped that Cyprus can contribute to increasing humanitarian aid to the 2.4 million Gazans. It is barely 400 kilometers from the coast of Gaza. But whether it means anything more remains to be seen, since on the ground the war no longer has “safe zones” and the fighting extends to Rafah, in the south of the strip, on the border with Egypt and where a good part of internally displaced persons, say the United Nations. And not only. In the north of the Palestinian enclave, both Gaza City and Jabaliya are the scene of intense fighting and a UN refugee agency clinic has been destroyed in the Beit Hanun area. There is also fighting in the refugee camps in central Gaza and yesterday at least five people died in a children’s school that was now used as a shelter for displaced people.
Nothing breathes in Gaza, and Hamas leaders remain unaccounted for after 84 days of Israeli offensive by land, sea and air. Doubts about their ability to complete the main military objective in Gaza grow as pressure from the relatives of the hostages held by Hamas, 129 according to the Government of Israel, to achieve their release continues. Their posters are the only ones that remain on the fences leading to the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.
Furthermore, on the border between Israel and Lebanon, everything is complicated. Hezbollah rocket alerts are repeated every day on Israelis’ cell phones, and this Wednesday Benny Gantz, minister without portfolio in Beniamin Netanyahu’s government and a strong man within the war cabinet, warned Beirut: “The situation on our border North demands a change. Time for a diplomatic solution is running out. If the Lebanese government does not act to prevent bombing in the north and move Hezbollah away from the border, our forces will do so.”
Launching an offensive in Lebanon sooner rather than later to fight the Iranian-backed militia is on the table. The exchange of rockets has not stopped for weeks and in recent days its intensity has grown and reached areas until now out of reach, such as the south of the Golan Heights.
Also read Alexis Rodríguez-Rata
Israel is increasingly leaning towards the possibility of undertaking two interventions on the ground in parallel: in Gaza and Lebanon. Any hint of a temporary truce is fading in the region. Cairo reports, in fact, that it has not received any response to its plan to resolve the conflict in Gaza.
Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad insist on not negotiating any new ceasefire agreement as long as Israel’s attacks against the strip continue and put “all in exchange for all” as a condition for releasing the Israeli hostages captured on October 7. For Israel, the essential thing is to free the hostages and put an end to Hamas. The impasse is still there and is joined by the West Bank, which is experiencing levels of violence that it has not seen for two decades.
Yesterday morning a simultaneous Israeli raid on Jenin, Ramallah, Hebron and other West Bank cities left a young Palestinian dead. Israel claims to have acted against Hamas financing and confiscated “tens of millions of shekels” in various locations, including currency exchange offices. But on Wednesday six more young people died in Tulkarem, and in the area this year there are already 520 Palestinian deaths, more than one hundred minors. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has called on Israel to “end the illegal killings” of Palestinians and “settler violence” in the West Bank.
The Israel Museum in Jerusalem houses like no other in the country the long and turbulent history of the Middle East region since before Israel was Israel and Palestine was Palestine. Today, in the middle of the war, it closes rooms due to the “security situation,” explains a red sign at its entrance. In it, as in the various fronts on which Israel fights, nothing says that normality will return soon.
Also read Alexis Rodríguez-Rata
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