2023-10-19 04:21:29
American President Joe Biden exonerated Israel on Wednesday, after the deadly strike against a hospital in Gaza which raised a wave of revolt in the Middle East, and obtained from his ally bruised by an unprecedented attack a green light for the humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Having come in person to support Israel, struck by the bloody attack launched on October 7 by Palestinian Hamas, Mr. Biden took up the version given by the Israeli army on this strike, which accuses Islamic Jihad, another organization Palestinian.
Based on the information we have had so far, it appears that [la frappe] or the result of an out-of-control rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza, declared Joe Biden, who claims to have convincing evidence from the Pentagon.
Hamas, the Islamist movement in power in Gaza, accused Israel of being the author of this strike, as did Iran and many Arab countries, where thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to denounce the crimes. Zionists.
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The surroundings of the American embassy in Awkar, near Beirut, were the site of a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Wednesday October 18.
Photo: Reuters / Zohra Bensemra
Speaking to the press, the American president also indicated that Israel had given the green light for the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, thus responding to the request of the American authorities and the international community.
Israel will not prevent humanitarian aid from Egypt as long as it involves food, water and medicine for the civilian population in the southern Gaza Strip, a statement from the Israeli office later confirmed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel, however, put a condition. This aid will not pass through its territory until the hostages held by Palestinian Hamas are released. The Palestinian movement claims to hold between 200 and 250 hostages, at least 199, according to Israel.
Their release is an absolute priority, said the American president.
More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel, most of them civilians, on the day of the attack, which was the deadliest on Israel since its creation in 1948.
In retaliation, Israel relentlessly bombs the small, overpopulated territory of Gaza, where at least 3,478 people have been killed, the majority Palestinian civilians, according to local authorities, who do not specify whether this toll also takes into account that of the victims of the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza.
Joe Biden assured that he would work with Israel to avoid more tragedy for civilians, on the twelfth day of the war, and while the situation in the Gaza Strip is out of control, according to the World Health Organization.
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A girl carries luggage and walks in the area of Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinians were killed following a strike on Tuesday.
Photo : Reuters
Washington vetoes humanitarian pause
The United States vetoed a Security Council resolution on Wednesday that called for a humanitarian pause, with Washington blasting a text that did not mention Israel’s right to defend itself.
Dozens of trucks full of international aid have been waiting in Egypt for days to return to Gaza at the Rafah crossing point, the only one not controlled by Israel, but which was still closed Wednesday evening.
Joe Biden affirmed that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, with whom he had just spoken, had agreed to let up to 20 trucks cross but that this aid would probably not arrive before Friday due to work to be done on the road, destroyed by Israeli bombings.
In the process, Egypt announced on Thursday the lasting passage of humanitarian aid through Rafah.
This aid must be substantial, of the order of 100 trucks per day, and must be secure, said Martin Griffiths, head of emergency humanitarian situations at the United Nations, on Wednesday.
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Heavy trucks loaded with aid for the Gaza Strip line up at the Rafah crossing point on October 18, 2023. Organized by Egyptian NGOs, this convoy left Cairo on October 14.
Photo : Getty Images / Mahmoud Khaled
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that he would visit Israel and several other capitals in the region on Thursday to insist on the release of humanitarian aid and call for avoiding an escalation of the war.
Water and food are lacking for the 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, also deprived of electricity, after the siege imposed by Israel since October 9 on the small territory of 362 km2, already poor and cramped. subjected to a land, sea and air blockade since Hamas took power there in 2007.
Two versions
The strike Tuesday evening on the Ahli Arab hospital, in central Gaza, left at least 471 dead among displaced people from the conflict who were sheltering within the premises of the establishment, assures the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian territory . Probably much less, however, underlined a senior European intelligence official.
There are not 200 or even 500 dead, but rather a few dozen, probably between 10 and 50, said this source on condition of anonymity, also believing that Israel probably did not do that, according to the serious intelligence leads available to its services.
Israel for its part claimed on Wednesday to have proof of the responsibility of Islamic Jihad in the strike on the hospital.
The evidence, which we share with you all, confirms that the explosion at a Gaza hospital was caused by the firing of a failed Islamic Jihad rocket, said army spokesman Daniel Hagari.
According to Islamic Jihad, a group allied with Hamas, classified like it as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, it was a bomb dropped by an Israeli army plane which caused the tragedy.
In a video authenticated by AFP, we see flames rising in the night from what appears to be the courtyard of a building. Inside the Ahli Arab hospital, an AFP photographer on Wednesday saw charred vehicles, debris littering the ground and a destroyed ambulance with the name of the hospital.
I saw a huge ball of fire, the whole place was on fire, corpses were thrown everywhere, children, women and elderly people, said Adnan al-Nagah, 37, who had taken shelter with his family in the hospital and narrowly escaped death.
Tensions on the border with Lebanon
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An Israeli tank on the border with Lebanon.
Photo : Getty Images / Amir Levy
Thousands of people demonstrated Wednesday in support of the Palestinians in Cairo, near the Israeli embassy in Amman, and in Tunis in front of the French embassy, one of the countries accused of being allies of the Zionists in this war.
Palestinians also demonstrated in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, with cries of Free, Free Palestine.
Tension is also high on the border with Lebanon, where there are daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, as well as in the West Bank where at least 61 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, according to the authorities. local.
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