The president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, yesterday implored the United States to use its influence over Israel to prevent the military offensive on Rafah, where 1.5 of the 2.3 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are concentrated. “The United States is the only country capable of preventing Israel from committing this crime,” he said during the first day of the World Economic Forum in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, very focused on the practice in Gaza.
Although the Palestinian National Authority was expelled from Gaza by Hamas in 2007, Mahmnud Abbas remains the only acceptable Palestinian interlocutor in the eyes of the international community. The veteran leader spoke in Riyadh in dramatic terms about the announced offensive, both with regard to lives and a hypothetical displacement of Gazans (Egypt refuses to open its border with Gaza to welcome Palestinians). The Israeli offensive would mean “the worst disaster in the history of the Palestinian people,” said Abas, a history rich in them since the 1948 defeat, the nakba, a disaster that marked the first great exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the West Bank, Lebanon. and Jordan.
The direct appeal to the United States and its president summarizes the great fears throughout the region about the effects of a military offensive in Rafah, where the Palestinians from the north of the strip have been concentrating. To the south of this city overwhelmed by the flow of civilians there is no longer any sanctuary. The Saudi Foreign Minister, Faisal Ben Farhane, certified in Riyadh that the Gaza war “is manifestly a catastrophe from all points of view, also a total failure of the existing political system”, a veiled reproach to Washington that at the same time It can be interpreted as Saudi Arabia’s desire to gain international influence, in line with the new global order that is emerging in the world.
Mahmoud Abbas’s request came hours before Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Riyadh to join said forum, just when there are diplomatic efforts to avoid an unrestricted offensive by Israeli troops. An Egyptian delegation has negotiated a plan in Israel based on a truce in exchange for the release of hostages, although the details have not been revealed. The Israeli Foreign Minister said Saturday that “the release of the hostages is the top priority for us.”
The matter tenses the coalition government chaired by Netanyahu and yesterday the Minister of Finance and Defense, Bezalel Smotrich, threatened to break up the executive if Israel “decides to wave the white flag and cancel” the military operation in Rafah.
Hamas confirmed yesterday that its representatives will be in Cairo today to respond to the plan. The terrorist organization holds between 133 and 129 hostages, according to sources. Israel estimates that 39 are dead.
On the other hand, the World Central Kitchen (WCK) NGO run by Spaniard José Andrés will resume its work in Gaza today after a month of interruption due to the death of seven employees in an Israeli air attack (admitted by the army, which attributed it to to a chain of errors).
Until then, WCK had managed to distribute 43 million meals in the Gaza Strip.
