Humanitarian aid to Gaza from Rafah crossing – ‘Yes’ from Egypt, ‘only food, water, medicine’ says Israel

While the world watches in shock developments in Israel and the Gaza Stripthe presidents of the US and Egypt agreed during a telephone conversation on Wednesday to work together to speed up the transfer of humanitarian aid to the area besieged by the Israeli armyWashington and Cairo announced late at night.

Joe Biden and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi underlined the need to maintain stability in the Middle East and prevent further escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, while reaffirming their commitment to the strategic relationship between their countries.

Speaking to reporters, Joe Biden announced that Egypt’s president had agreed to open the Rafah crossing point, on Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip – for “to let up to 20 trucks through” to deliver humanitarian aid to the population of the Palestinian enclave.

“If Hamas seizes them or doesn’t allow them to pass,” the effort will end, Biden said, giving “credit” to Egypt’s president for his “cooperation.”

The delivery of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Stripwhere around 2.4 million Palestinians are crowded, should be “systematic”, in the order of 100 trucks per day, Martin Griffiths, the UN’s humanitarian affairs coordinator, told the American television network CNN yesterday.

Israel announced on Wednesday that it would not block the entry of humanitarian aid from Egypt, “as long as it is food, water and medicine (intended) for civilians in the southern part of the Gaza Strip” and “as long as the supplies do not reach Hamas ».

Palestinians dead in Israeli army operation and settler raid in West Bank

Meanwhile, a young Palestinian was killed today by Israeli soldiers in the village of Budrous, in the West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reports, according to international agencies and the Athens Agency.

The young man, Jibril Awad, was killed and another Palestinian was wounded during an operation by Israeli troops in the village, he said.

At the same time, the Israeli news site Ynet – the digital version of the newspaper Jedot Aharonot – reports, citing the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Authority, that another Palestinian, 21 years old, Mohammed Fawaka, was killed by Israeli settlers fire near the village of Dura al-Qara yesterday Wednesday late at night.

Earlier yesterday, two Palestinian teenagers were killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers near Ramallah.

The situation in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, already very tense this year, escalated again after Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israeli territory on October 7.

Following the deaths of hundreds of people in the bombing of a hospital in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian organizations in the West Bank called for protests, which were sure to lead to clashes with the Israeli army. Moreover, settler violence is escalating, according to Martin Griffiths, the UN’s top humanitarian official, who is sounding the alarm that the situation could spiral out of control.

Israeli airstrikes on two villages in southern Lebanon

At the same time, the Israeli air force struck two villages in southern Lebanon in the early hours of today, reports the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen television network.

Missiles were fired at the communities of Kafr Shuba and Odaisha, according to the same source.

Yesterday Wednesday, the Shiite Hezbollah movement of Lebanon, which is close to Iran, announced via Telegram that two of its members were killed while “engaged in fighting” in southern Lebanon, while a third is hospitalized in serious condition.

He stated that attacks were launched against five Israeli positions, including an Israeli camp in Zarit and a position in Ras Nakura, notably with guided missiles.

The Israeli military said it retaliated against its positions in Zarit and after anti-tank rockets were fired at the Manara and Rosh HaNikra kibbutzim near the border, saying it would continue to “hit (…) targets belonging to the terrorist organization Hezbollah.”

Fighting on the Israel-Lebanon border since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 is the deadliest since the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006. The Shiite movement said yesterday that one of its fighters succumbed to wounds suffered on Tuesday, adding to the toll of the victims of that day’s hostilities at six.

Single-digit number of German nationals killed in Hamas attack in Israel

Meanwhile, German diplomacy confirmed on Wednesday that a single digit number of German citizens were among the victims of Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel since October 7.

The federal government believes that fewer than ten Germans “have fallen victim to Hamas terrorism,” a foreign ministry spokesman said in Berlin, declining to elaborate.

He clarified that the German Foreign Ministry is in close contact with the Israeli authorities and the government confirms deaths only after the relatives of the victims have been informed. He added that a low three-digit number of German nationals remain in the Gaza Strip and on the ministry’s crisis response list.

He pointed out that there is constant contact with the country’s partners in the region to make it possible for those who wish to leave.

Germans are also believed to be among the nearly 200 people being held hostage in the Gaza Strip, according to the spokesman. Berlin is making efforts to secure their release.

Hamas’ attack on Israel claimed the lives of 1,400 people, mostly civilians. It is characterized as the worst state-funded disaster.

Also yesterday, 68 Germans returned from Israel to Berlin on a Bundeswehr Airbus A321 aircraft that landed at 00:34 (local time; 01:34 Greek time), according to the German military’s operations command . Another aircraft, with 19 people on board, landed in Cologne at 23:06 (00:06 Greek time). The armed forces have airlifted over 300 German citizens from Israel so far.

Austria revises its death toll to 4 for the worse

Four Austrian citizens, who also held Israeli citizenship, were killed in a Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7, the foreign ministry in Vienna announced Wednesday.

Another Austrian remains missing.

“It is with great sadness that we have to announce that the barbaric terrorist attack by Hamas has claimed the life of another dual citizen of Austria and Israel,” said the Austrian embassy, ​​which had confirmed three deaths last week.

Source: News Beast

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