C T Online Desk: GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Oct 19, 2023 (AFP) – US President
Joe Biden on Wednesday unveiled a deal to allow desperately-needed
humanitarian aid to enter worn-torn Gaza, where one million people have fled
their homes amid withering Israeli air strikes.
After face-to-face talks in Israel and intense telephone diplomacy with
Egypt, Biden said a limited number of trucks would be allowed to cross the
shuttered Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza from Friday.
It would be the first international relief to enter Gaza since October 7,
when Palestinian militant group Hamas launched shock raids into Israel,
killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing about 200 hostages.
Since then, Israel has besieged the Palestinian enclave, launching wave after
wave of air strikes, enforcing a blockade and deploying tens of thousands of
troops to the border in preparation for an expected ground assault.
The United Nations and humanitarian groups have begged for the military
stranglehold on Gaza to be eased, to allow supplies of water, food, fuel and
medicines to enter.
Top UN humanitarian official Martin Griffiths on Wednesday said the situation
in Gaza was dire, with hospitals overwhelmed, more than 3,000 Gazans killed
and 12,500 injured.
“The pace of death, of suffering, of destruction” he said “cannot be
exaggerated.”
Despite the devastation, more than 100 trucks have been queued for days on
the Egyptian side of the border waiting to enter Gaza.
Israel fears that aid deliveries could be used as cover to bring in weapons,
or could be diverted into the hands of Hamas — which governs the enclave.
Israel has already hit the border crossing with multiple air strikes since
this phase of the decades-old conflict began.
Egypt controls the border and fears throwing open the gates would bring tens
of thousands of refugees to its territory.
After what he described as a “blunt” telephone call with Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Biden indicated that about 20 trucks would enter Gaza
to start with, with more to come if all sides agree.
“We want to get as many of the trucks out as possible,” Biden said aboard Air
Force One.
“If Hamas confiscates it or doesn’t let it get through… then it’s going to
end, because we’re not going to be sending any humanitarian aid to Hamas,”
Biden said.
Israeli officials said the deliveries would be limited to “food, water and
medicine”, and that they effort was conditional on aid not being used by
Hamas.
