A humanitarian window of 11 hours a day, from 8am to 7pm local time (7am and 6pm in Italy), in the southern area of Gaza, until further notice, to allow the entry of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory devastated by several of eight months of war and threatened by famine. The decision was made known this morning at dawn by the IDF and the day after the death of 11 Israeli soldiers, including eight in a bomb explosion in the Strip and two more today. The affected area is the one that goes from Kerem Shalom, crossing southern Israel and then towards the north of Palestinian territory via the Salaheddine road. The pause, we read in an army note, was decided to allow “an increase in the volume of humanitarian aid entering Gaza” after discussions with the UN and other organizations which have repeatedly made it known that the aid that enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing are very difficult to transport and distribute to the population who have no water, food and medicine, due to the bombings and fighting.
Gaza, the dramatic testimony of Doctors Without Borders volunteers: “Stop the bombs or everyone will die”
From May 6 to June 6, the United Nations received an average of 68 trucks of aid per day, according to data from the United Nations humanitarian office, known as OCHA. That number is down from 168 trucks per day in April and far below the 500 trucks per day that aid groups say is needed. The flow of aid into southern Gaza has declined even as humanitarian needs have grown. More than a million Palestinians, many of whom were already displaced, fled Rafah after the invasion, flocking to other parts of central and southern Gaza. Most now languish in dilapidated tent cities, using trenches as latrines, with open sewage in the streets. Cogat, the Israeli military body that oversees aid distribution in Gaza, said there were no restrictions on the entry of trucks. More than 8,600 trucks of all types, both humanitarian and commercial, are said to have entered Gaza from all crossings from May 2 to June 13, an average of 201 per day. But much of this aid has accumulated at border crossings and has not reached its final destination.
Since aid trucks began entering Gaza from Egypt through Kerem Shalom, a “trickle” of aid has arrived, Matthew Hollingworth, director for the Palestinian Territories of the World Food Program (WFP), said recently. “But this must turn into a river of aid if we want to prevent the most acute forms of hunger from increasing,” he warned, asking that “the southern corridors be completely open.”
The Gaza Strip, besieged by Israel, is in the grip of a serious humanitarian crisis, where 75% of the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants are displaced by the war and where, according to the UN, the population is threatened with famine. The good news, however, comes as hopes of a ceasefire seem to be fading due to the contradictory demands of Israel and Hamas which leave little chance of seeing the plan announced on May 31 by American President Joe Biden realised. Biden presented this plan as coming from Israel. But Benjamin Netanyahu deemed it incomplete, reaffirming his government’s determination to continue the war until Hamas is defeated. Biden accused Hamas above all of having blocked the offer which envisages, in the first phase, a six-week ceasefire accompanied by the Israeli withdrawal from the densely populated areas of Gaza, the release of some hostages held in Gaza and the release of the Palestinians imprisoned by Gaza. Hamas has sent an initial response to mediators from Qatar and Egypt, which, according to a source close to the discussions, contains “modifications” to the plan, including “a timetable for a permanent ceasefire and the total withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza ». Requests that Israel has always rejected. Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has made it known that he will soon travel to Washington, at the invitation of his American counterpart Lloyd Austin, to discuss the war in Gaza, the Pentagon said.
New protests against Netanyahu
Like every Saturday for months, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in various cities of Israel to demand the release of the hostages and protest against the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Last night, Benny Gantz also attended a demonstration in Sha’ar HaNegev in southern Israel, less than a week after resigning from the government. Protesters also gathered outside Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv, where opposition leader Yair Lapid accuses the prime minister of “temporizing so that people forget that he is guilty and responsible” for the Hamas assault.
War in Gaza, eight Israeli soldiers killed in Rafah. Hamas freezes Israel: “No one knows how many hostages are still alive”
The Israeli police announce that 12 people have been arrested for violations of public order in last night’s demonstration in Tel Aviv against the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Among those arrested was also a photographer from the Haaretz newspaper, local media reported: it was Itay Ron, who was freed about an hour later. Videos posted on social media showed the reporter grabbed by an officer and pushed towards a bus of arrestees, despite pleas from passers-by that he was a journalist.
Two more soldiers died in combat. Captain Eitan Koplovich, 28, from Jerusalem, and Sergeant Major Elon Waiss, 49, from Psagot, were killed in battle in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday. The two served in the 129th Battalion of the 8th Brigade. The IDF announced it. The army also released the names of five of the eight soldiers killed yesterday in an armored vehicle explosion near the city of Rafah, all aged between 19 and 20. The explosion occurred in the early hours of the morning, when the vehicle the soldiers were in was operating in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, after several other IDF vehicles had traveled the same road.
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