A first humanitarian aid convoy, coming from Egypt, entered Gaza on Saturday, desperately awaited by its inhabitants, who lack everything. The UN is calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire” to put an end to the “nightmare” in the Palestinian territory shelled and besieged by Israel after the Hamas attack on its soil on October 7.
The aid left Egypt aboard 20 trucks, according to the UN, via the Rafah crossing, the only gateway to Gaza not in Israeli hands, after an agreement announced by US President Joe Biden, Wednesday.
From Cairo, where he is participating in an international summit “for peace” without a senior American leader, the head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, immediately called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” to “end the nightmare “.
“The Gazans need much more, a massive delivery of aid is necessary,” he added. The UN particularly highlighted the need to deliver fuel, vital for the Palestinian territory where some 2.4 million inhabitants are crowded.
The gate of the Rafah terminal, on the Egyptian side, was closed after the passage of the convoy, witnesses told AFP, while dozens of people holding dual nationalities wait on the Palestinian side to be authorized to reach Egypt .
More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel by Hamas since October 7, the majority of them civilians who were shot, burned alive or died of mutilation on the first day of the fighters’ attack from Gaza, according to reports. Israeli authorities.
According to the Israeli army, around 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in the Israeli counter-offensive.
In the Gaza Strip, 4,385 people, mostly civilians, were killed in incessant bombings carried out in retaliation by the Israeli army, according to the Health Ministry of Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Saturday that at least 17 of its employees were among the victims.
“Catastrophic conditions”
As the conflict enters its third week, humanitarian officials have echoed Mr. Guterres in calling for a ramp-up in aid deliveries.
An emergency, in the face of “truly catastrophic” conditions in Gaza, according to the World Food Program (WFP) and to “prevent avoidable deaths and reduce avoidable suffering”, underlined the World Health Organization.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, welcomed “a first step” taken “to alleviate the suffering of innocents” in Gaza on Saturday.
More than a hundred trucks loaded with tons of international aid, including nearly a thousand tons of emergency food products from the WFP, have been massed for days between Egypt and Gaza.
The UN also reiterated its call for the “immediate and unconditional release” of all those kidnapped by Hamas on Saturday, after the release the day before of the first two hostages, an American mother and daughter, Judith and Natalie Raanan, via mediation from Qatar, known to be close to Hamas.
The Palestinian movement, classified as terrorist by the United States, the European Union and Israel, still holds some 200 hostages.
“Very dangerous message”
The Palestinian, Jordanian and Egyptian leaders, meeting in Cairo alongside European leaders Charles Michel and Josep Borrell, for their part, pleaded for a “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, and a “solution” to 75 years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The world is silent” protested Abdallah II, seeing in it a “very dangerous message” on the value of Palestinian lives that “the Arab world clearly hears”. On Friday, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Arab and Muslim countries in solidarity with the Palestinians.
“We will not leave” Palestinian lands, insisted Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas, while Cairo and Amman are up in arms against the evacuation of Gazans to the south of Gaza demanded by Israel.
They see it as a first step towards “a forced displacement” towards the Egyptian Sinai, which would amount, according to Mr. Abbas, to “a second Nakba”, the displacement of 760,000 Palestinians at the creation of Israel in 1948.
As the Israeli army prepares for a ground offensive, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has set the objective of the war to “end” Israel’s “responsibilities” in Gaza, unrolling the rest of the operations on Friday .
Ultimately, Israel is considering among the possible scenarios “handing over the keys” of the Gaza Strip to a third party, which could be Egypt, without any guarantee that Cairo will accept this scenario that has been postponed for decades, a source said. at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to AFP.
“I am afraid that the current destruction will follow a clear plan, that people will not find a place to live and that this will cause a second Nakba,” worries Omar Ashour, a retired general, in Gaza.
At least a million Gazans have been displaced, according to the UN.
Tension on the border with Lebanon
Tension is also rising in the north of Israel, on the border with Lebanon, which is emptying of its inhabitants, while skirmishes and exchanges of fire are increasing.
The United States has deployed two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean to deter Iran or Lebanese Hezbollah, two Hamas allies, from getting involved in the conflict.
At dawn on Saturday, the Israeli army announced that it had carried out airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, in response to rocket and anti-tank missile fire towards Israel.
Questioned by AFP in this border area where Israeli soldiers are now everywhere, a conscripted reservist, who requested anonymity, said he was “ready to fight” because “the Jews have no other country”.
The tension in the occupied West Bank also claimed a new victim, killed overnight in clashes with the Israeli army near Jericho, bringing to 84 the number of Palestinian deaths in the West Bank since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health .