Israel reopens key crossing for aid to enter Gaza that was closed over weekend rocket attack

Israel reopens key crossing for aid to enter Gaza that was closed over weekend rocket attack

now for more than 24 hours virtually all humanitarian Aid into Gaza was cut off Aid organizations again sounding deep alarm over the risk of fullscale famine across Gaza now though in the last few hours the Israeli military saying it’s reopen now the Kim Shalom Crossing south of Rafa into Gaza to ensure some Aid still gets in unclear at this stage if the same levels of Aid of course will continue to flow Hamas accusing Israel of trying to undermine efforts to a ceas file after its takeover of Rafa well let’s hear first of all from the Israeli Prime Minister Benin n seizing the passage in Rafa today is a very important step an important step on the way to destroying the remaining military capabilities of Hamas including the elimination of the four terrorist battalions in Rafa and an important step to damage the governmental capabilities of Hamas because as of this morning we denied Hamas a passage that was essential for establishing its Reign of Terror in the strip well France 24s Andrew Hilo joins me from our International Affairs desk now with more um Andy Israel says it’s going to deepen its offensive in Rafa until Hamas is eliminated what does that mean for civilians bearing in mind of course all this news we’ve had this morning about Karam Shel Onan refer yeah well um on Tuesday you have Gallant that’s Israel’s defense minister made some very defiant comments while he was speaking to Israeli troops stationed in the Rafa area he said that uh Israel would continue its offensive in the area until Hamas had been either completely eliminated or until Israeli hostages were returned now as things stand in Rafa Israeli tanks are still stationed at the Rafa Crossing into Gaza that’s of course the main entry point for humanitarian Aid uh in the territory uh over the last few hours however the IDF has announced that the km Shalom Crossing has been reopened the SES Crossing in the north of Gaza is also open and the US has also announced that it has finished constructing a temporary uh Pier off the coast of Gaza that Pier of course meant to uh handle shipments of Aid by C but at this stage still not clear how much Aid is going to be able to get back into the territory it’s still trickling in at this point so what does that mean for civilians well um we can take a close look at the situation uh in Rafa for example before the war there were some 275,000 people living in gaza’s Southernmost city now by some estimates that has now gone up to 1.5 million people an extremely very densely populated area the UN has called it a pressure cooker of Despair Israel has already told some civilians there to evacuate to a tiny Slither of land along the Mediterranean Coast called muasi it was declared a safe Zone back in December but Aid agencies working on the ground say that it’s a squalid Tent City and not at all equipped to handle uh hundreds of thousands of of internally displaced people and of course as that’s all going on we’ve still got the hope uh coming out of those peace talks in Ciro but I we’ve been talking about them for several weeks now it always feels doesn’t that you get one step forward two steps back two steps forward one step back yeah I mean those indirect talks are meant to uh continue today in CYO between a delegation sent by Hamas and uh Israel now the head of the CIA Willian Burns also in Cairo mediators from Qatar Egypt also on hand that just gives you uh a sense of how important this is to all the parties involved I think a real push to finally come up with some kind of uh resolution to this conflict um but I think it’s very interesting to also look at the Israeli delegation that’s been sent to Cairo now over the weekend Israel came under a lot of criticism for not sending a delegation to Cairo at a time when the talks were reportedly reaching a critical uh phase now they have sent a delegation it arrived yesterday however this is what’s been called a midrank delegation which Stuart essentially means they don’t actually have much power what they do have the power to do is to listen to what’s being said uh to report whether or not what’s been put on the table by Hamas meets Israel’s needs then report back to the Israeli War cabinet to Benjamin Netanyahu who will then give them instructions on what to do next now up until this point uh Benjamin Netanyahu Netanyahu has been very clear he’s told them to insist on demands essential for the uh ongoing security of Israel so I think very clear that Netanyahu really wants to keep a firm grip on the negotiations particularly at this crucial stage there’s been another development over the last few hours Andy this is these reports coming out of the US that they’ve held up uh some arms shipments to Israel what more can you tell us on that yeah so a senior Us official confirming that Washington had held up uh a shipment of weapons to Israel now in this in this shipment there are munitions there are large bombs up to £2,000 now these are these are bombs that can flatten uh entire buildings even entire neighborhoods so the concern in Washington is that Israel may use those weapons during a fullscale offensive on Rafa uh which could lead to civilian casualties so I I think this is meant to send a political message uh to uh the Israelis now in private Israeli officials have been quoted as saying that they’re not phased by this that they’re going to continue to fight to tooth a nail no matter what but what could also Stuart ramp up the pressure on the Israelis in the next few days uh is a report in the US on Israel’s use of Us weapons so the state department is required by law to report to U the US Congress uh on Israel’s use of us supplied weapons and whether or not they violate International humanitarian law now Israel insists it is respecting the law uh but in private us officials have cast doubt on Israel’s assurances so I think this report really meant to address those concerns okay no doubt we will cover it when it comes out Andy thanks so much Andrew hilia from our International Affairs test there

The Israeli military said Wednesday that it has reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, a key terminal for the entry of humanitarian aid that was closed over the weekend after a Hamas rocket attack killed four Israeli soldiers nearby. More information with France 24 Senior Journalist Andrew Hilliar.
#Israel #Gaza #Rafah

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