Hope for faster aid for Gaza

War in the Middle East - Hope for faster aid for Gaza

Israel's ground offensive in the Gaza Strip has left the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians with hardly any safe havens. In Rafah on the border with Egypt, so many people are seeking shelter from the fighting that the city no longer has food, electricity or sufficient drinking water for them, as a reporter from the British BBC reported.

In view of the growing criticism of the faltering aid deliveries to Gaza and in response to pressure from the USA, Israel has now agreed to use a second checkpoint for trucks carrying aid at the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

Hope for second border crossing

Israel will begin this in the coming days, reported the "Times of Israel", citing a senior government representative. This should facilitate the import of a larger number of trucks, it said, citing the responsible Israeli Cogat authority. Kerem Shalom is much closer to Rafah than the smaller Nitzana crossing, where Israel has so far inspected the contents of aid shipments before they are sent to Rafah. Since the beginning of the war, deliveries have been sent exclusively via Rafah.

As the Palestinian Red Crescent announced on X, 69 trucks carrying relief supplies entered the Gaza Strip via Rafah on Thursday. The trucks were loaded with vital supplies. Before the war, 500 trucks entered the area every day. Aid organizations complain that the transport of trucks with relief supplies to Nitzana and back has led to further delays in supplying civilians, but Israel denies this.

Israel fears that weapons could also be transported to Gaza in the trucks and is therefore inspecting them. If the USA has its way, Israel should also reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing completely for the import and export of aid shipments, as the Times of Israel further reported. UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths sees opportunities for this, as he said in Geneva. The UN Emergency Relief Agency (OCHA) is still waiting for the green light, but is now planning convoys from Jordan with relief supplies that are to travel via Kerem Shalom.

Kerem Shalom was the border crossing through which most aid reached Gaza before the terrorist attack on Israel by the Islamist Hamas and other groups on October 7. According to Griffith, the use of Kerem Shalom makes it somewhat easier to supply people in need. But only an end to the Israeli attacks and a ceasefire could guarantee the necessary aid for the people.

USA sends renewed warning to Israel

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken once again called on Israel to do more to protect civilians in the coastal strip. According to Blinken, Israel's leadership had taken important additional steps in this direction. However, there is still a gap between what he suggested during his recent visit to Tel Aviv and what results can be observed.

For example, it is not just a matter of setting up security zones, but also communicating them in such a way that people actually know where, when and by what route they can flee. In addition, there must be food, water and medicine for the refugees in such safety zones. In the Gaza Strip, there are "unimaginable losses, destruction and misery", wrote Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Program, on X. Everyone is hungry. Everyone is starving.

Israel: Hamas fires from security zones

Meanwhile, Israel's military declared that Hamas had fired rockets at Israel from such "humanitarian security zones". Meanwhile, Israeli media published pictures of dozens of Palestinians in their underpants arrested in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The identity of the men was initially unclear. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the districts of Jabalia and Shejaiya in the north of the coastal strip were "strongholds of terrorists and we are fighting against them".

Those who remain in these areas, who come out of tunnel shafts or buildings, are being investigated in order to clarify "who has connections to Hamas and who does not". Everyone is being arrested and interrogated, explained Hagari. Meanwhile, house-to-house fighting is also continuing in the southern city of Chan Junis, which is considered a Hamas stronghold.

According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, the number of Palestinians killed in the coastal area sealed off by Israel has risen to 17,177 since the start of the war. The number cannot be verified at present, but the UN and other observers point out that the authority's figures have proven to be generally credible in the past.

USA imposes sanctions over Houthi attacks

Meanwhile, the US government has imposed sanctions in response to attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. These were directed against 13 individuals and entities that the US accuses of supplying the Houthis with money from the sale and shipment of Iranian goods, the US State Department announced.

What will be important on Friday

At the urging of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the UN Security Council will once again address the situation in the Gaza Strip. The meeting is scheduled for 16:00 CET. The United Arab Emirates submitted a new draft resolution calling for a ceasefire. However, similar attempts had previously failed due to resistance from the USA.