Israel and Hamas at war | Humanitarian aid will be able to enter Gaza

On the same day as US President Joe Biden visited on Wednesday, Israel authorized the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, where a strict siege has been imposed since the conflict began on October 7. Egypt. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, pleaded in the same breath for the release of the dozens of hostages still held by Hamas, while the American president warned him about the serious abuses that bloody revenge could lead to.

Israel opens the door to humanitarian aid

“Israel will not prevent humanitarian aid from Egypt as long as it involves food, water and medicine for the population in the southern Gaza Strip,” the prime minister’s office said Israeli Benyamin Netanyahu, specifying that “any supplies that reach Hamas will be neutralized”. On Saudi television, the head of Egyptian diplomacy, Sameh Choukri, however estimated that such an operation “requires organization”. “The road allowing the delivery of aid between Gaza and the Rafah crossing point was destroyed,” he recalled, referring to Israeli bombings on the Palestinian side of the border.

It will still take time

The entry into the Gaza Strip of a first convoy of around twenty trucks at most, as the American president later specified, could therefore take place after 24 to 48 hours, the time to make the practicable road, believes the director of the Canadian Observatory on Humanitarian Crises and Action (OCCAH) and former head of delegation of the Red Cross, François Audet. What’s more, this aid is only a drop in the bucket compared to the needs of the population in the enclave continuously supplied by humanitarian aid in recent years. “We are going to find ourselves in a situation where people have nothing to eat. If we stop after 20 trucks, it will be the equivalent of a cup of tea instead of a meal,” insists François Audet. The United Nations coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, estimated that around a hundred trucks should be able to go to the Gaza Strip every day, the equivalent of the aid program to the enclave before the dispute.

The release of the hostages

In Tel Aviv, where he met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, American President Joe Biden recalled that the release of the hostages, whose number is estimated at 199 by the Israeli authorities, was the “highest priority”. Israel has also made the release of people kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 a sine qua non condition for opening access for humanitarian aid from its territory. The Islamist group claims that between “200 and 250” hostages are being held in the Gaza Strip and that 22 of them were killed in Israeli strikes.

“Mistakes” made by Hamas

“Mistakes” were made during the invasion of Israel on October 7, one of the founders of Hamas, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, admitted in an interview with the daily The Globe and Mail. He then estimated that the militant group would be ready to release the women, children and foreigners it is holding hostage in Gaza if Israel agreed to a 24-hour ceasefire. Sheikh Hassan Yousef called on the international community to negotiate a pause so that some of the hostages could be safely released. ” We are ready. Let’s let things happen. But the attack must stop,” he said.

A warning from Biden

United States President Joe Biden issued a warning to Israelis at the end of his seven and a half hour visit to the Jewish state on Wednesday. Regarding the anger felt after the surprise attack by Hamas on October 7, Joe Biden drew a parallel with the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States. “We can’t look at what happened here […] and not cry out for justice,” added the head of the White House at the end of his stay in Tel Aviv. “But I warn you: while you feel this rage, do not let it consume you. After September 11, we were furious in the United States. And while we sought justice, and did, we also made mistakes. »

The next day at Ahli Arab Hospital

Charred cars, a courtyard littered with bloody blankets and backpacks, tattered clothes where dozens of bodies had been dumped: the day after the explosion in the parking lot of the Ahli Arab hospital, in the strip of Gaza, the parties continued to attribute responsibility to each other. The Israeli army affirmed, with supporting documents, that a failed rocket attack by another Palestinian organization, Islamic Jihad, was at the origin of the tragedy, while Hamas maintained that it had been caused by aerial fire from Israel. Meanwhile, rescuers were recovering bodies and remains to try to identify the dead.

Ottawa recommends avoiding Lebanon

Ottawa on Wednesday raised its risk level in relation to the situation in Lebanon and warned Canadians to avoid all travel to the country “due to the deterioration of the security situation, civil unrest, the increased risk of terrorist attacks and of the ongoing armed conflict with Israel. “The Canadian government had already urged its nationals to leave the country while commercial flights were still available. Tension is high on the border between Israel and Lebanon, where there have been daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah since the start of the conflict.

With Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press, The New York Times and CNN