UN chief visits Rafah crossing to push for aid to be let into Gaza
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has flown to the Sinai peninsula in an effort to open a humanitarian route into Gaza, as Israel’s bombardment continued ahead of a looming ground offensive.
The border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border was due to open on Friday under an agreement Joe Biden believed he had brokered on his one-day visit to Tel Aviv on Wednesday. But the US state department said on Thursday that the “modalities” of opening the gate were still being negotiated, and the Egyptian government said it needed more time to repair the bomb-damaged road.
Guterres called for significant deliveries of aid to be let through and for security checks to be speeded up. “We are actively engaging with all parties to make sure conditions for delivering aid are lifted,” he said.
When the Rafah crossing opens, the Israelis will allow 20 aid lorries to enter Gaza in an initial convoy under the Biden deal, compared with a daily average of 450 trucks that crossed before the current conflict, which was sparked by a Hamas attack on 7 October in which 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed.
The UN and other aid agencies have said such a modest delivery could be too little too late for a besieged Gaza population of 2.3 million, who have minimal access to water, food and medical supplies and who are under continual Israeli airstrikes.
The Israeli military said it had hit 100 “operational targets” overnight, claiming the strikes were aimed at “destroying tunnel shafts, munitions warehouses and dozens of operational headquarters”.
A Greek Orthodox church in Gaza that was providing shelter for hundreds of displaced Palestinians was struck, according to the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and Palestinian health officials. Gaza’s Hamas-run government said 18 Christian Palestinians were killed, bringing the Palestinian toll in Gaza over the past 13 days to more than 3,800.
The prospect of even worse bloodshed is likely with the planned Israeli ground assault intended to destroy Hamas entirely, 16 years after the militant group seized full control of Gaza.
The Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, gave a televised speech on Thursday to Israeli troops massed around the Gaza border, telling them: “You see Gaza now from a distance, you will soon see it from inside. The command will come.”
The UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said: “Any further escalation or even continuation of military activities will just be catastrophic for the people of Gaza.”
US diplomats believed they had an agreement with Israel and Egypt to open the Rafah crossing to aid trucks going into the enclave and to hundreds of Palestinian-Americans desperate to leave.
But despite assurances from the Israeli and Egyptian governments, and Biden’s personal mission, nothing and no one has been able to cross, in what is an escalating humanitarian disaster and an increasing humiliation for the Biden administration.
There were more signs on Friday of the potential for the Gaza conflict to spread. Israel evacuated Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border, after days of cross-border artillery exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah forces.
Twenty-eight Israeli border settlements had already been emptied, and the evacuation of Kiryat Shmona suggests that Israel expects the border clashes to get worse. Hezbollah and its Iranian backers have threatened intervention if the Israeli assault on Gaza escalates.
Tensions are also high on the West Bank. The Palestinian health ministry says 13 people, including five children, were killed in an Israeli assault, including an airstrike, on the Nur Shams refugee camp outside the town of Tulkarm. And Israeli forces sent a convoy of armoured cars to carry out arrests in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.
The Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, has called a peace conference for Saturday. Leaders from the Palestinian Authority, Kuwait, Bahrain, South Africa, Italy and EU have so far said they will attend.