“As we huddle in the dark, terrified by the rain of death around us, an intrusive thought gnaws at us: Even if the bombs don’t hit us, how will we survive if we run out of food?” The outburst comes from journalist Ruwaida Amer, of Al-Jazeera, who is in the Gaza Strip. After the Hamas attack, which killed more than 1,300 people, Israel declared a total siege of the area, cutting off electricity, water and fuel. As long as the approximately 150 hostages that the Palestinian terror group took to Gaza are not released, the promise is that even humanitarian aid will not be allowed in. The United Nations warns of the “dire situation”.
On Saturday, the day of the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Palestinians to leave Gaza, warning that he would turn the places where Hamas is hiding into “rubble.” But the approximately 2.3 million Palestinians who live in the 41 km long and 10 km wide area (at most) they can’t go anywhere even if they wanted to. They can only leave their homes and seek shelter in hospitals, hoping that Israeli attacks do not reach them. According to United Nations figures, at least 338,000 people have already fled their homes.
The only border that does not lead to Israel is Rafah, which connects to Egypt. But the authorities of this country also do not allow the entry of Palestinians, arguing that conflicts within the borders of Israel and Palestine must be resolved and that only by remaining in the territories can the Palestinians guarantee their right to a state . Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stressed that Gazans must “remain steadfast and stay in their country.”
On Wednesday, White House security adviser John Kirby said the US was “actively working” with Israel and Egypt on the possibility of creating security corridors for civilians to leave Gaza. However, an Egyptian source told Reuters on condition of anonymity Cairo rejects the idea of security corridors to protect “the right of Palestinians to defend their cause and their land.” Moreover, Egypt does not want to have to deal with thousands of refugees.
The Egyptians only accept that their land is used to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. But the Israelis have also bombed this closed border at least three times, and it is not clear when this aid – and the first shipment has already arrived from Jordan in Egypt – will be able to reach the area.
Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip, halting operations at its main power plant due to a lack of fuel. Israel’s water supply was also cut off. “Humanitarian aid to Gaza? “No electrical switches will be turned on, no taps will be opened, and no fuel trucks will enter until the Israeli hostages return home,” Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz wrote on Twitter (renamed X) on Thursday. “Humanitarian for humanitarianism. And no one will give us moral lessons,” he added.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in Tel Aviv to reiterate his support for Israel, said he discussed Gaza’s “humanitarian needs” with Netanyahu, always defending Israel’s right to respond to the Hamas attack to respond. An attack that also killed at least 27 Americans, while 14 civilians were still missing. Blinken accused the terrorist group of “using civilians as human shields” to protect its infrastructure and weapons in Gaza.
The Secretary of State also revealed that not a single cent of the $6 billion in Iranian funds released by the US in exchange for the release of American prisoners in Iran was used. The money is in accounts in Qatar, which has now reached an agreement with Washington to prevent Tehran from gaining access to the funds. Iran is supporting Hamas not only militarily but also with funding, with the US suspecting the regime’s involvement in last weekend’s attack.
Eradicate Hamas
“We will deal a killing blow to our enemies, this is our mission and we are determined to achieve it,” Chief of Israel’s General Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Thursday at the first press conference since the Hamas attack. “Whoever is responsible will understand very well that this is not being done to the State of Israel,” he added, admitting that the armed forces had failed to fulfill their responsibility to defend the country during the attack.
Since Saturday, the Air Force has Israelis have already dropped more than six thousand bombs against the Gaza Strip, a total of more than four thousand tons of explosives, hitting 3,600 targets. More than 1,500 people have been killed in Gaza, including nearly 500 children. The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas demanded “an immediate end to the widespread aggression against the Palestinian people”, after meeting with the King of Jordan, Abdullah II. And he rejected “practices associated with the death or mistreatment of civilians on both sides.”
The Israeli army is preparing for a possible invasion of the Gaza Strip after activating 300,000 reservists. All that remains is to order an operation of this magnitude, with Hamas warning it will be catastrophic for the Israeli army. “For every action the enemy takes, we have a plan,” said Hamas’s number two in political office, Saleh Al-Arouri, as quoted by the Associated Press agency.
In the Knesset, which approved Netanyahu’s emergency government with opposition leader Benny Gantz by 66 votes to four, the Israeli prime minister reiterated that the aim of the offensive is the eradication of Hamas. “This is truly a war for our homeland. And it must end with one thing: a decisive victory. And with the crushing and extermination of Hamas. Hamas, that is the Islamic State.” insisted.
Netanyahu has reiterated this idea, which he considers “an undeniable truth,” recalling that the world was “shocked by the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda after September 11” and “formed an international coalition to eradicate this scourge ”. No one said, the prime minister added, “we are going to meet representatives of the Islamic State or Al-Qaeda.” Or “let’s allow their presence in our country.”
Source: DN
