2023-10-20 19:53:24
The long-awaited trucks with the much-needed humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip remain detained on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, where the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, made a lightning visit and said he was “heartbroken” because «We are witnessing a paradox: behind these walls, we have 2 million people who suffer enormously: they have no water, no food, no medicine, no fuel. And, on this side, we have seen so many trucks loaded with water, fuel, medicine, food… exactly the same things that are needed,” he explained.
The UN high representative once again demanded a ceasefire, although he made it clear that aid should not be subject to that condition. Meanwhile, the three countries that agreed to it, the United States, Israel and Egypt, once again assured that it could arrive today; but there are no guarantees. In fact, last Wednesday the American president, Joe Biden, already said that the Egyptian Government would allow the entry of “up to 20 trucks”, of the more than 200 that are waiting, but that promise was not fulfilled and the desperation of hundreds of thousands of innocents continues to grow.
On the other hand, the Washington Post cited sources inside Gaza who assured that, when it arrives, the distribution of aid will be “extremely dangerous for them if the Israeli airstrikes do not stop,” which continued both in the north, where The majority of Hamas militants are believed to be concentrated, such as in the south, where Tel Aviv promised it would not bomb. During the last 24 hours “352 Palestinians have been killed and 669 injured,” according to the spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qudra, bringing the number of civilians killed in Gaza to 4,137, as well as more than 12,000 injured.
From Israel’s point of view, “the main sticking point has been the ongoing logistical problems and verification that the aid will not fall into the hands of Hamas,” according to a government official. For his part, the spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Abu Zeid, directly accused Israel of the delay due to “the selective attacks” they are carrying out inside the Strip. “The Rafah crossing is open and Egypt is not responsible for obstructing it,” he added, after a day of massive demonstrations in the country of the pyramids demanding that aid arrive immediately. Likewise, and regarding verifications, Guterres indicated that “they must be effective and, at the same time, they must be carried out in a practical and accelerated manner.”
Meanwhile, in Gaza the bombings do not stop and are increasing after the Israeli military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, assured that Air Force planes have been punishing the Strip “at a rate not seen in decades.” In addition, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reported that his Army’s future operations will take place in three phases with air strikes and ground maneuvers to then eliminate Hamas militants inside the Strip. However, he stressed that once the conflict is over, Israel will no longer have “responsibility for life in Gaza”, thus ruling out a permanent occupation.
Regarding the people kidnapped by Hamas during the terrorist operation last Saturday, the Tsahal reported that, among the more than 200 hostages, there are around 30 minors under 16 years of age. Furthermore, they added that there are also between 10 and 20 people over 60 years old. The Israeli Army believes that most of them are alive, but also admits that the Islamist militants took with them an undetermined number of corpses, which they also hope to use as bargaining chips to free 6,000 Palestinians serving sentences in Israeli prisons.
Regarding the abductees of up to nine different nationalities, Hamas indicated that they will be released when possible. «The foreign prisoners are our guests and will be released when conditions allow. We urge all countries in the world to warn their compatriots not to participate in the enemy army,” threatened the spokesman for the Ezedin al Qassam Brigades, the group’s armed wing, Abu Obeida. Furthermore, he was not able to offer a real number of the number of captives because there are “practical and security difficulties”, giving the figure of about 200 in his hands and another 50 in those of “other resistance factions.” .
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