The USA wants to develop a strategy with Israel for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. Aid organizations hope that the border crossing with Egypt will be opened for the delivery of aid supplies.
In view of the acute need for supplies for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, Israel and the USA want to develop a strategy for humanitarian aid. The commander of US troops in the region, General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, also landed in Israel on Tuesday. The visit was a sign of the strong bond between Israel and the USA and especially between the two armies, the US Central Command announced on the X platform (formerly Twitter).
Diplomatic efforts to prevent a conflagration in the Middle East are currently in full swing: after Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden is also traveling to Israel the next day.
Egypt’s Rafah border crossing, the only way to bring urgently needed aid into the coastal strip sealed off by Israel, remained closed early Tuesday.
Humanitarian aid should bypass Hamas
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday evening in Tel Aviv that the aim was to “reach civilians in Gaza and them alone”. In view of the Israeli military strikes against the Islamist Hamas in the coastal strip, security zones for civilians should also be created. “It is critical that aid flows to Gaza as quickly as possible,” Blinken said.
UN: Around a million people on the run
According to estimates by the UN Emergency Relief Office (OCHA), almost half of the Gaza Strip’s civilian population is now on the run. Around a million people had left their homes by Monday evening, OCHA said on Tuesday night.
According to Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus, a little more than 600,000 people were estimated to have moved to the south of the sealed-off coastal strip by nightfall on Tuesday. “There are still a few hundred thousand who should go,” he added.
Israel continues counterattacks
Army spokesman Conricus said early Tuesday morning that the Israeli military was continuing to attack Hamas’ infrastructure and was actively searching for the hiding places of its leaders. The head of Hamas’ Shura Council, Osama Mazini, was killed in an airstrike, the army previously announced. He was responsible for the Hamas prisoners and directed terrorist activities against Israel. The Shura Council elects Hamas’ Politburo, which is the highest decision-making body of the organization ruling the Gaza Strip.
Israel says it wants to destroy the Hamas ruling party in the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 1,400 people in the terrorist attack on Israel. In addition, according to the army, at least 199 people were abducted to the Gaza Strip according to the latest information. A spokesman for Hamas’s military wing said that between 200 and 250 people had been kidnapped. 200 of them are in the hands of Hamas, the remaining hostages are under the control of other militant factions. According to figures from the Gaza Strip, the number of Palestinians killed rose to more than 2,800. More than 10,000 have been injured since the start of the Israeli counteroffensive after the terrorist attacks on October 7th.
Hope for the opening of the Egyptian border crossing
Given the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees in the south of the coastal strip, aid workers are hoping that the Egyptian Rafah border crossing will be opened for humanitarian deliveries. It would be the only way to get help to the coastal strip sealed off by Israel. According to the Egyptian Red Crescent, around 2,000 tons of goods were available for this purpose on Monday. Around 150 trucks carrying humanitarian aid supplies were on their way from Al-Arish on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula towards the Rafah border crossing, eyewitnesses told the German Press Agency early on Tuesday morning.
However, eyewitnesses reported that an access road on the Palestinian side was damaged in Israeli airstrikes. According to reports, Egypt and Israel have not yet been able to agree on how the trucks carrying the aid supplies will be checked. Israel wants to rule out the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip.
Aid is available for refugees in Gaza
The United Nations is ready to bring aid through the Rafah border crossing. A plane carrying relief supplies from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the UN emergency relief office Ocha said on Monday. The World Food Program (WFP) is now planning to feed 225,000 people in 19 United Nations shelters in the Gaza Strip. The EU is planning an airlift for aid organizations in the Gaza Strip. The EU Commission announced that the flights should start this week and, for example, bring medicine to Egypt. From there the aid supplies could be transported further to the Gaza Strip.
Crisis diplomacy continues
This Tuesday, Chancellor Scholz will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and meet with relatives of hostages who were kidnapped in the Gaza Strip. Scholz wants to find out about the situation in the war zone, but also talk about how a wildfire in the region can be prevented. In the evening he travels on to Egypt. The next day, US President Biden also met with Netanyahu in Israel. On the same day, he traveled to Jordan to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egypt’s head of state Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, according to the US government.
Hamas releases video with hostage
Meanwhile, Hamas has released a video with a suspected hostage for the first time. In a video distributed on Monday, you can see a young woman having a wound on her arm bandaged and then speaking directly into the camera. “I am 21 years old and come from Shoham,” says the woman. She was in Gaza and treated in a hospital there. According to media reports, it is said to be an Israeli who also has French nationality. The Israeli military said she had been kidnapped. The army is in contact with the family. Everything is being done to get the hostages back.
French President Emmanuel Macron demanded that the hostage be released immediately. The Elysee Palace said on Tuesday in Paris: “It condemns the disgrace that is the taking of innocent people hostage and its disgusting staging.
Fighting continues on the border with Lebanon
Meanwhile, in the north, the Israeli military is also retaliating against repeated attacks by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Israeli army said it prevented a terrorist cell from advancing into Israeli territory from Lebanon on Tuesday. “Four terrorists were killed,” the military said. They tried to plant an explosive device and cross the security system.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and Iran against attacks on Israel on Monday evening. Iran threatened new fronts if Israel did not end its military offensive.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
