Heavy fighting again in northern Gaza – Overview of the night
Published: Wednesday, Apr 24th 2024, 05:10
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Israel's armed forces have once again engaged in heavy fighting in the north of the Gaza Strip, where they had largely disbanded the combat units of the Islamist Hamas. The army has intensified its operations in the north and in the central section of the sealed-off coastal strip, the Times of Israel reported on Tuesday. Even 200 days after the start of the war, rockets were again fired from Gaza at Israel's border towns. According to experts, there is still a risk of famine in the north of the sealed-off coastal area. "The risk of famine in the entire Gaza Strip is very high, especially in the north," said David Satterfield, US President Joe Biden's special envoy for humanitarian issues in the Middle East. According to the Pentagon, the construction of a temporary port announced by the US to deliver aid to the coastal area will begin soon. Meanwhile, the US Congress approved a good 26 billion dollars in support for Israel, including for missile defense, with the consent of the Senate. Around nine billion dollars are earmarked for humanitarian aid, including for the Gaza Strip.
Israeli army continues to fight for control of northern Gaza
The resurgence of violence in previously captured and largely evacuated areas in northern Gaza shows how difficult Israel's army is finding it to bring the situation under control, wrote the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday (local time). According to an Israeli defense official, there are still several thousand Hamas fighters in the northern Gaza Strip. In view of Israel's planned ground offensive against the last Hamas battalions in Rafah in southern Gaza, the ongoing fighting is a "sobering example of the difficulty of consolidating successes". Maintaining and consolidating control over northern Gaza will take time, the newspaper quoted a former deputy commander of the Israeli military as saying. According to reports, a ground offensive in Rafah on the border with Egypt is approaching. The hundreds of thousands of civilians seeking shelter from the fighting there are to be evacuated beforehand.
EU Commissioner calls for support for UN Palestinian relief organization
The EU Commissioner responsible for humanitarian aid, Janez Lenarcic, called for support for the controversial Palestinian relief organization UNRWA in view of the catastrophic situation of the people in Gaza. "I call on donor countries to support UNRWA - the lifeline for Palestinian refugees," he wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday. He welcomed the investigation report on UNRWA published the previous day, as it highlighted "the agency's numerous compliance systems and recommendations for further improvement".
UNRWA hit the headlines in January because Israel claimed that twelve of its employees were involved in the Hamas massacre on 7 October and that the organization as a whole had been infiltrated by Hamas. Some of the most important donors, including Germany, temporarily suspended payments as a result. The USA has not yet resumed payments. The communications director of the US government's National Security Council, John Kirby, said on Tuesday that UNRWA funding "obviously remains suspended. We need to see real progress here before that changes." The US would continue to work with other aid organizations to ensure that people receive the support they need.
Pentagon: Construction of temporary Gaza port to begin soon
In March, the US government announced its intention to set up a temporary port off the coast of Gaza to bring food, water and medicine to the war zone in view of the humanitarian emergency in the Strip. "We are in a position to begin construction very soon," said Pentagon spokesman Ryder. "All the necessary ships are in the Mediterranean". In view of the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, the USA had recently called on its ally Israel to rapidly expand aid deliveries for the civilian population. In the meantime, Israel has taken "significant steps" to improve the flow of aid, said the US Special Representative for Humanitarian Affairs, Satterfield. However, more needs to be done. There is still a risk of famine in northern Gaza, he said.
Reports of starving children in northern Gaza
If people in the Gaza Strip begin to starve on a large scale, experts believe it will hit the north first and the most vulnerable there first, the New York Times wrote on Tuesday, citing children with pre-existing conditions, older adults and infants. In its report, the newspaper described, among other things, the heartbreaking case of a baby born during the war in Gaza who, according to his parents, had never had a full meal since birth. According to a recent report by the Oxfam organization, people in the northern Gaza Strip have been forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day since January. According to the report, more than 300,000 people still live there. This Wednesday, a UN report on hunger worldwide will be presented in Geneva.
The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre of more than 1,200 people killed by terrorists from Hamas and other groups in Israel on October 7 last year. Israel responded with massive air strikes and a ground offensive, starting in the north of the Gaza Strip. The fighting later shifted to the south. In the meantime, however, Hamas fighters in the north have regrouped into smaller units and switched to guerrilla tactics, reported the Wall Street Journal. In view of the high number of civilian casualties and the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, Israel came under international criticism. According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, 34,183 people have been killed and more than 77,000 others injured in the coastal strip since the beginning of the Gaza war. The figures, which do not distinguish between combatants and civilians, cannot be independently verified.
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