Palestinians stranded in Gaza desperately await humanitarian aid trucks promised by US President Joe Biden and Egypt on Thursday, 13e day of a murderous war which continues, despite intense diplomatic activity.
Israel continued to shell the Gaza Strip on Thursday, while humanitarian aid convoys which must go to this cramped strip of land where 2.4 million Palestinians live have been blocked for days on the border with Egypt, at the Rafah crossing point, the only one not controlled by Israel.
Coming in person on Wednesday to support Israel, bruised by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on its soil on October 7, Mr. Biden assured that the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, with whom he had just spoken, had “agreed” to “let up to 20 trucks cross” the border to deliver this humanitarian aid.
Nearly 3,500 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry. Entire neighborhoods have been razed and left without water, food or electricity, and more than a million people have been displaced after the siege imposed by Israel on October 9 on Gaza, already subject to a land, sea and air blockade. since Hamas took power there in 2007.
In Israel, more than 1,400 people have died since the start of the war, most of them civilians killed on the day of the attack, according to Israeli authorities, and the number of Hamas hostages has been revised upwards to 203 people. THURSDAY.
“We are ready”
At the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, Egyptians were repairing damage from Israeli bombings on Thursday in preparation for the passage of aid trucks, witnesses told AFP. And dozens of people gathered Thursday morning in the hope of reopening the crossing point.
“We are ready with our bags,” assures Mohammed, 40, who works for an Italian institution and has been waiting for three days with his family to be able to cross the border.
“We want to get as many trucks through as possible. There are, I believe around 150,” the American president declared on Wednesday evening.
However, he indicated that the entry of a second convoy would also depend on “how the distribution of the first goes”. Clearly, “if Hamas (seizes them) or does not let them pass (..) then it will be over,” warned Mr. Biden, during a stopover in Germany during his return trip to Washington.
The aid must be “substantial”, of the order of 100 trucks per day, and must be secure, Martin Griffiths, the head of emergency humanitarian situations at the United Nations, said on Wednesday.
Thursday evening, the American president must address the Americans from the White House to try to unite them behind Israel and Ukraine, countries at war with Russia which invaded its territory in early 2022.
The day before, he had exonerated Israel for the deadly strike against the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, for which the Israeli army and Hamas blame each other.
This strike killed at least 471 people displaced by the conflict who were sheltering within the hospital grounds, according to the Ministry of Health in the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas. Probably much less, however, said a senior European intelligence official, interviewed by AFP.
“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. A spokesperson for the Israeli army, Jonathan Conricus, also disputed the number of 471 deaths put forward by Hamas: “Where are all the bodies? “, he said.
AFP photos and videos show dozens of bodies in sheets, black body bags or under blankets.
“Based on the information we have had so far, it appears that (the strike on the Ahli Arab hospital) was the result of an out-of-control rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza,” Joe said. Biden, who claims to have convincing evidence from the Pentagon.
“Proofs”
Israel claimed to have “evidence” that Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian movement, was responsible for the hospital strike.
Supporting photos, an Israeli army spokesperson Jonathan Conricus repeated that “it is not an Israeli bomb because there is no crater in the photos” during a press briefing in night from Wednesday to Thursday.
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.
Thousands of people demonstrated on Wednesday across the Arab world expressing their indignation after this tragedy, which they blame on Israel, despite its denial.
Large rallies took place in Amman, Tunis, Beirut, Damascus and other capitals, including Manama, after the strike, which sparked calls for a “day of anger” across the Arab world.
Several countries are taking action to avoid a regional conflagration. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Israel on Thursday, the first stop on a regional tour, to call for avoiding an escalation of the war.
The Egyptian President and King Abdullah II of Jordan will discuss “Israeli aggression on Gaza” in Cairo on Thursday, the two countries announced after the cancellation of a meeting in Amman with Mr. Biden. These two countries, which have often played mediators between Israelis and Palestinians, have been warning for several days against a “forced displacement” of Palestinians on their soil.
In Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the Egyptian prime minister that his country wanted to “work with Egypt to bring greater certainty and stability to the region and the world.”
The Egyptian authorities also announced the arrival in Cairo of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterrez, whose organization has been warning for several days of the danger of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
Tension also remains 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 64 Palestinians, including 18 children, have been killed since October 7, according to the latest UN report.