US President Joe Biden will travel to Israel on Wednesday to demonstrate his support for the country’s battle against Hamas after Washington said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to allow humanitarian aid to reach beleaguered Gazans. Trucks carrying crucial supplies for Gaza proceeded to Egypt’s Rafah gate, the only way into the enclave not under Israeli control, though it was unclear whether they would be permitted to cross.
A witness told Reuters that 160 trucks had left the nearby Egyptian town of Al-Arish, where they had been backed up for days while officials battled for days to clear the road. After Hamas terrorists killed 1,300 people, mostly civilians, during a rampage through southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, the worst single day in Israel’s 75-year history, Israel has threatened to eliminate the Hamas faction that governs Gaza.
Israel has blasted the Gaza Strip with air attacks, killing over 2,800 Palestinians
Israel has blasted the Gaza Strip with air attacks, killing over 2,800 Palestinians, a quarter of whom were children, and driving over half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents from their homes. It has put a total siege on the enclave, preventing food, fuel, and medical supplies from entering. At the end of hours of talks with Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed Biden’s planned visit, saying Netanyahu had agreed to establish a plan to bring humanitarian goods to Gaza civilians. He didn’t elaborate.
“The president will hear from Israel what it needs to defend its people as we continue to work with Congress to meet those needs,” Blinken said. Biden would also “hear from Israel how it will conduct its operations in a way that minimizes civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not benefit Hamas”, he added. Washington is also trying to rally Arab states to help head off a wider regional war after Iran pledged “preemptive action” from the “resistance front” of its allies which include the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon. (https://blogs.20minutos.es/)
Following his visit to Israel, Biden is scheduled to go to Jordan to meet with King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, a rival of Hamas with limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, anxious people were lifting chunks of concrete and metal with their own hands, crying out when they discovered bodies under rubble in a huge, smoldering bombing crater. Others ran with stretchers carrying injured people.
A guy emerged from the ruins of a building, clutching the limp body of a tiny boy in his arms, which was covered in chalky soot. In the enclave’s main southern city Khan Younis, authorities said at least 49 people were killed in air strikes on homes overnight.
“Concerns over dehydration and waterborne diseases are high given the collapse of water and sanitation services
Amin Hneideq awoke to the sound of a huge explosion that shattered the glass and lacerated his daughter’s skull. The bomb had missed his house but demolished another nearby, killing a family from the north who had fled to safety in the south after Israeli orders. “They brought them from the north just to strike them in the south,” wept Hneideq. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Israel opened a single water connection to Khan Younis for three hours on Monday, although only about 14 per cent of Gazans got access to it.
“Concerns over dehydration and waterborne diseases are high given the collapse of water and sanitation services, including today’s shutdown of Gaza’s last functioning seawater desalination plant,” the UN Refugee Agency (UNRWA) stated.
In addition to attempting to bring aid through the Rafah crossing, Washington wants it open to allow Gazans with foreign passports, including hundreds of Palestinian Americans, to leave. On Monday, Gazans with dual nationality attempted to reach Rafah but were unable due to Israeli air strikes. Egypt has stated it may allow medical evacuations via the bridge, but it is opposed to any mass departure, which Arab states fear would amount to an intolerable expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland. The vast majority of Gazans who do not have dual nationality are barred from leaving.