We are glad to report that the Head of the NCF in Gaza, journalist Adel Zaanoun, is safe and well. He forwarded us videos in the small hours of the night. One of a child who died with a little toy in his pocket is too graphic to share. There are many distressing videos coming out of Gaza and in almost all instances, unless they are from NCF members, we have decided not to share them. Adel’s video above is filmed next to one of Gaza’s Christian Churches. Some Gazans were sheltering in places of worship in the mistaken belief that they were safe.
We can also report that a senior NCF member in Gaza, the journalist Wael Aldahdouh, remains okay. He wrote the NCF Secretary General today to say, “Thanks a lot habeebii, William, the situation is very difficult.
We pray that the war will end immediately…the people here are tired. It is a disaster and a disaster.”
This video posted by Wael today shows an attack by Israel in eastern Gaza. The video shows four raids on approximately one geometric line and on one raid on a residential square. There was intense targeting of the same homes that were bombed before, as well as new homes. You can clearly hear the sound of drones over the bombed areas, alongside the sound of bombing. Click on the image or click here to view in full on Instagram.
Humanitarian Aid Agreed
The announcement that Israel has agreed to allow Egypt to open up the Rafah crossing so as to permit twenty trucks of aid into Gaza has provided some initial relief to the enclave’s beleaguered residents. However, President Biden stressed that the shipment would likely not cross immediately owing to the need for extensive road repairs. Biden is to address America on the crisis, according to the White House.
This news comes as humanitarian organisations lament the inadequacy of the humanitarian aid promised. Abeer Etefa, from the World Food Programme in Cairo, says, for instance, that 20 trucks would be a “good start” but “it is nowhere near enough” to ameliorate the increasingly “dire” humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Key questions remain unanswered including where and how the aid will be dispensed. On the one hand, Israel’s military has urged Palestinians to move to al-Mawasi, an area close to Rafah where “international humanitarian assistance will be provided.” However, it has not taken steps to guarantee safe passage for the population to make the journey. To ensure that the aid does not fall into the hands of Hamas, an agreement has been reached that any aid will be distributed by the UN.
Regarding the details of the aid package itself, Israel has conceded the entry of limited quantities of food, water, and medicine into the enclave, but it has omitted the provision of fuel, which is important for the functioning of Gaza’s critical infrastructure.
Determining the logistics of this humanitarian aid distribution remains a highly contentious issue that will demand considerable compromise and cooperation in the forthcoming days.
The War Continues
Rockets continue to be fired in large barrages toward central Israel from the Gaza Strip.
The number of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas into Gaza has risen to 203 confirmed abductees. The IDF are still notifying families.
Israel is still fearful and has not ruled out the possibility that there are still Hamas terrorists acting and hiding within Israel. IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that the IDF “Hasn’t finished scanning the Gaza border area yet”. Last night the IDF arrested an “exhausted terrorist” trying to get back into Gaza.
With its ground operation into the Gaza Strip momentarily stalled, Israel has intensified its aerial bombardment of the enclave.
In its update on Thursday morning, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) said that it had destroyed “hundreds of Hamas infrastructures,” including “anti-tank missile launch sites, tunnel shafts, intelligence infrastructures, operational headquarters and other headquarters.”
The IDF claims that “over ten terrorists were also eliminated,” naming Rafat Abu Hilal amongst those killed. He headed the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, which, after Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, comprises the third-largest armed faction in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Palestinian media has reported the death of Jamila al-Shanti during an air strike. The widow of Hamas co-founder Abdel al-Rantisi, she was instrumental in setting up the women’s movement in Hamas and became the first – and only woman – elected to the political bureau in 2021.
More than 3,700 people in Gaza have been killed, according to the Health Ministry’s latest estimate. This figure includes 471 fatalities from the deadly blast at the compound of the Al-Ahil Arab Hospital on Tuesday.
On Israel’s side, 306 IDF soldiers have been killed during and since the initial attack on 7 October, whilst Netanyahu said yesterday that more than 1,400 Israelis in total were murdered by Hamas.
A Health Crisis on the Brink of Explosion?
Action Against Hunger, a global humanitarian organisation, has described the situation in Gaza as “a health crisis on the brink of explosion”
Starved of fuel and medicine by Israel’s blockade, Gaza’s hospitals have been struggling to cope with the influx of injured patients.
The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital – the Strip’s only cancer hospital – is on the verge of collapse. “We are trying to keep the essential services,” its director said, adding that some services such as radiology, used for monitoring and diagnosis, have already been stopped.
Meanwhile, Yousef al-Aqqad, head of the European Hospital in Khan Younis, issued a desperate plea for medical supplies and fuel: “Any medical aid that comes through will be useful and necessary to continue our service,” he stressed, “Right now, we only have enough [fuel] for two or three days.”
Four of Gaza’s hospitals have already closed.
The World Health Organisation says five lorries containing vital medical supplies are standing at the Egypt-Gaza border awaiting instructions to depart.
Any delay could prove lethal: time is indeed of the essence. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UN relief agency UNRWA, said, “We need 100 trucks a day, and if we cannot bring in fuel we need more. I recognise that Israel has gone through a barbaric event but this is collective punishment.”
Tensions Mounting in the West Bank
Although the Gaza Strip has formed the focus of the Israel-Palestine conflict over the past week, other Palestinian towns and villages have not remained impervious to the heightening tensions.
There has been a sharp increase in the number of Israel’s raids into Palestinian cities and villages in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where more than three million Palestinians live. Some 76 Palestinians have been killed there since 7 October.
In the latest of these retaliatory assaults, Israel’s forces carried out a large-scale raid on the Nur Shams Refugee Camp in Tulkarem, killing at least seven Palestinians.
This followed two separate incidents earlier in the day, which resulted in the shooting of 15-year-old Taha Mahameed and 17-year-old Ahmad Muneer Sdooq by Israel’s soldiers.
Tensions mounting at Lebanon border
Over 30 rockets were also fired from Lebanon towards Israel today. One rocket directly hit a building in Kiryat Shmona on the western slopes of the Hula Valley near the Lebanese border. The rocket injured three civilians including a five-year-old girl and 75-year-old man. Hezbollah has fired rockets at Israel today in multiple rounds including two anti-tank missiles this morning.
Piers Morgan and Bassem Youssef
The language in the following video is utterly tasteless, as is the humour. But since it is trending throughout the Middle East to the point where it has gone viral and is being viewed everywhere, we have decided to share it so that you can understand how opinions are being shaped in the Middle East. Arguably a significant proportion of those young people in the Middle East who are English speaking will have viewed this video. If you can tolerate dark humour, you may be able to tolerate the interview between Piers Morgan and exiled Egyptian satirist Bassam Yousef. But the language used is very ripe and the humour is very dark indeed and we must warn you that you may find it extremely offensive.
For yesterday’s report follow this link.
The image used first above is from Hosny Saleh
