A day after the Al Ahli Hospital carnage, which revealed the brutality of the Israel-Palestine war entering its thirteenth day, Egypt has announced the creation of a "sustainable" humanitarian aid corridor into Gaza. The Rafah crossing that opens Egypt to the Gaza Strip would finally be opened but would not allow many refugees from the Gaza Strip to enter Egypt.
Egypt and other Arab countries typically don't want to take in Palestinian refugees.
The decision comes a day after US President Joe Biden visited Israel to extend his ‘solidarity’. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that limited humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza from Egypt following a request from Biden.
The president's visit came after hundreds of people were reported killed in an explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital. There were conflicting claims about who was responsible for the hospital blast. Officials in Gaza quickly blamed an Israeli airstrike. Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was due to a missile misfire by Palestine Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza. However, the group dismissed that claim.
The war that began on October 7 has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday that 3,478 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,000 injured in the past 11 days. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, and at least 199 others, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
What is the US's stance?
However, as diplomatic talks proceed to slowly shed light on ceasing the humanitarian crisis, the US has agreed to $100 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians affected by conflict in Gaza and the West Bank.
The US has vetoed a proposed UN resolution to condemn violence against civilians in the Israel-Hamas war and to urge humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, saying it was too early to craft an appropriate Security Council response to the crisis.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the council needs to allow current diplomatic efforts, including by President Joe Biden, to unfold and to find out more facts on the ground first. She also criticised the measure for failing to underline Israel’s right to self-defence.
Egypt and Jordan's statement
As desperate Palestinians in sealed-off Gaza try to find refuge under Israel’s relentless bombardment in retaliation for Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack, some ask why neighbouring Egypt and Jordan don’t take them in.
The two countries, which flank Israel on opposite sides and share borders with Gaza and the occupied West Bank, respectively, have replied with a staunch refusal. Jordan already has a large Palestinian population.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi made his toughest remarks yet on Wednesday, saying the current war was not just aimed at fighting Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, “but also an attempt to push the civilian inhabitants to ... migrate to Egypt.” He warned this could wreck peace in the region.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II gave a similar message a day earlier, saying, “No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt.
A stretched medical fraternity
At least 500 Palestinians were killed in yet another airstrike in Gaza. Located in central Gaza, Al-Ahli Baptist, which is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, was struck while it was sheltering thousands of Palestinians who were seeking refuge amid a barrage of brutal Israeli air attacks across much of the besieged Gaza Strip. As rage spread through the war-torn Strip over the hospital carnage, Israel and Hamas have begun trading the blame game. While Israel accused the Palestine Islamic Jihad, a Sunni Islamist militant group, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has pointed its fingers at Israel for the deaths of hundreds of civilians, women, and children.
Hospitals in Gaza have sent out repeated calls for aid as Israel has cut off the supply of basic resources like fuel and electricity. Following the attack last night, victims were immediately shifted to Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza. But, Shifa too, is stretched beyond its capacity and will soon run out of fuel if Israel does not allow more supplies to enter Gaza.
In an interview with AP, Shifa’s general director said that due to a severe lack of resources, operations are being performed on the floor. A further push to this will lead to a complete shutdown of the extremely-stretched medical fraternity.
While horrific visuals of burnt bodies, children buried under rubble, bleeding legs and arms, mothers crying for their children, and much more, flood social media, inside hospitals, doctors are fighting every second to save people whose limbs were amputated, children whose intestines have come out, those suffering with brain bleeds and bleeding in the liver and spleen.
Hamas hostage video
Hamas has released a video of an Israeli hostage who was abducted from the music festival during the October 7 festival. The 21-year-woman, who identified herself as Mia Schem, is seen having her arms bandaged. In the video, Miya said that she was being “taken care of and treated well” "I'm only asking to be returned home as soon as possible, to my family, to my parents, to my siblings. Please get us out of here as soon as possible."
