Gaza continued last night without receiving a single one of the symbolic twenty trucks of humanitarian aid announced on Wednesday, without date, by President Joe Biden. Today, Friday could be the day of access, but if such a non-“revolutionary” gesture costs so much…
Dozens of trucks wait at the Egyptian border for a green light that is delayed and for which no one wants to take responsibility. The inaction in such a minor episode leaves the feeling of a regional power vacuum in the air and shows that “the Arab street” is one thing – which today threatens a day of fury and protests throughout the Islamic world – and another. It is the attitude of their governments.
These are all good words for the population of Gaza, but the panorama is the same: another day of Israeli aerial punishment of the strip while awaiting the moment to launch the ground military offensive. Last night, the Israeli Defense Minister sent a message to the troops deployed at the gates of the strip: “You will soon see Gaza from within.” The feeling of revenge is perceptible. The warning sirens sounded yesterday in the center of Tel Aviv around three-thirty. People walking on the street took shelter inside shops and businesses until a couple of explosions rang out (missiles intercepted in the air by air defenses). A young man rushed out of Neto’s cafeteria, calling himself the “falafel king” – or the falafel professor, according to another customer – to record the contrails in the sky.
-Spanish? You’re going to see how we beat them until there are none left.
He didn’t seem like the only customer in favor of revenge…
“Twenty trucks is a drop in the ocean, but we hope it is the beginning of a bottom current,” said the head of emergencies at the World Health Organization, Mike Ryan, who provides five of the twenty trucks with medical supplies. , so needed in the hospitals of the strip.
The opening of the Rafah crossing corresponds to Egypt, which claims that the recent four Israeli bombings have left it impassable, which is why yesterday they were working hard to repair the pavement and access points. The Rafah border crossing, like the destroyed Gaza airport in its day, has a lot of fatalistic symbolism: the European Union provides the financing, Hamas distorts its purpose and Israel plants the bombs. And start again.
At the moment, everyone seems to be holding their breath after the massacre at the Ali Ahli Gaza hospital, whose responsibility Israel denies with reasonable evidence even though it matters little, because each side has its story and it is immovable. “The risks of this war spreading are real,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned CNN yesterday, who also lamented that if the US is not able to articulate a diplomatic response, no one will.
Yesterday, Cairo hosted the meeting between Jordanian King Abdalah and Egyptian President Al Sisi, traditionally conciliators when Palestine burns, due to the fact that it brings them: the Palestinian issue can overwhelm their – precarious – domestic balances. In complete harmony, Egypt and Jordan condemn the “policy of collective punishment of siege, deprivation of food or displacement of our brothers in Gaza.” That is to say; strict closure of borders to prevent a flow of Palestinian refugees, whatever their fate in Gaza or the West Bank. They consider that accepting refugees would be playing into the “ethnic cleansing” that they attribute to Israel, regardless of whether opening the Rafah crossing would save Palestinian lives today.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Israel to express the United Kingdom’s support for the country and its Prime Minister, Netanyahu. Like President Biden, Sunak did not hesitate to use sporting terms: “We want you to win!” In the joint appearance, the Israeli leader insisted on a lofty idea that does not quite sink in: Israel is waging a gigantic battle, not against the Palestinians, but against totalitarianism, obscurantism and anti-democratic forces.
The rapprochement shown in Beijing by Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin – here is a happy man these days – and their coldness towards Israel would support this thesis of two blocs in conflict, with a world order in the air.
And the kidnapped? The silence is absolute. A petrifying and complex matter. The two sides differ on the numbers – 203 according to Israel, from 200 to 250 according to Hamas – but they agree on keeping the matter quiet. These are not the first kidnappings, but never before in such a high number and with an imminent land war, a guarantee of carnage.
“The release of the hostages should be a priority for this Government, which is a Government of incompetents. If you have to negotiate with the devil so that they come back alive, you negotiate,” says a woman, Israel, 64 years old, who participates in the daily rally in front of the Army Ministry in Tel Aviv.
The photographs of many of the kidnapped people and a brief file “humanize” these victims, traditionally well treated by their kidnappers because they are worth their weight in gold. There are kidnapped people from 42 countries. Those gathered are of a certain age, over fifty years old, and agree in their disdain for the prime minister, typical of a generation that voted Labor and embodied an Israel that defended itself against everyone. When he was David and not Goliath.
The concentration, in days of war, highlights the democratic character of Israel. “Now, talking about solutions is already too late,” laments Margalit. This disappointment with which this war – like the previous ones – can contribute to a solution explains why they put the rescue of the kidnapped before the reason of State. Next to his stall, there is a recognition that attracts attention. A plaque extols the courage of two Zionists, Haberman and Albalak, who on April 25, 1947, disguised as workers, detonated a car bomb in what was the headquarters of the British “occupier.”
