Ukraine and Russia forgotten, China invisible, Western diplomacy seems focused on pacifying the Middle East, the conflict between conflicts. The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, visited Israel and the West Bank yesterday with an original proposal: the formation of an international coalition like the one that defeated, without hesitation, the Islamic State in 2014 in Iraq and Syria and in which Arab countries were also listed.
There are few European leaders who have not passed through Israel and none as determined as yesterday Macron, with an initiative of a front against Hamas that was accompanied by counterweights, in the European line of asking Israel for moderation in the face of the his ground offensive.
France is in favor of defeating Hamas, “without contemplation, but not without rules. Terrorism is our common enemy,” he said to Prime Minister Netanyahu. For France, October 7 is also “a black page in our history”, taking into account the thirty French people killed by the terrorist raid and the nine kidnapped citizens.
In the afternoon, Macron visited President Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah, whose impotence and irrelevance make him a non-protagonist figure once the war is over and it is time to turn the page to diplomatically approach an exit. President Macron subscribed yesterday to the objective of the Oslo process of 1993, which had been forgotten in a drawer: the two-State formula.
The initiative of the Elysee has surprised, but it is interpreted in the Western diplomatic media as a way of “influencing” – something that seems reserved in Washington – in the Israeli response, which is limited to the bombings on the Gaza Strip, with scary numbers Israel said yesterday that it had struck 400 “terrorist targets” in the strip in one day, a figure that Hamas authorities in Gaza put at 700 dead in 24 hours, the deadliest day since the bombings began, the first of the three phases of the war programmed by Israel.
According to the Ministry of Health of Gaza, controlled by Hamas, the death toll rises to 5,800 people.
The delay in the ground offensive, so often “imminent”, is attributed to the request of the United States to try to get Hamas to release as many hostages as possible. There are four women, elderly, except one, released without known compensation and for “humanitarian reasons”.
The 85-year-old Israeli Yachered Lifshift spoke to the media yesterday at the Tel-Aviv hospital, where she was admitted, apparently in good condition. A disastrous appearance in terms of public relations for the Israeli account, since he described what he had experienced as “hell”, but explained, at the same time, that the treatment received during the two weeks of captivity was good and humane.
“I went through hell”, he said in relation to the capture. She and her husband, who is still kidnapped, were beaten with sticks and taken by motorcycle to the interior of Gaza, where they had to walk several kilometers through “a web of tunnels”. There, separated into a group of five, they were received by their caretakers with a “we are Muslims, we will not harm you”. And they slept on mattresses and shared the same food – cheese and cucumbers –, the same hygienic conditions.
The tone of the appearance upset the conservative news media, which laments the propagandistic concession to the kidnappers. At the same time, it must be remembered that the husband remains in the hands of Hamas and certain statements could harm him. A third stream of reactions is proud because it considers it a sign of the freedom of expression that all Israelis enjoy, even in such exceptional times as these.
Yesterday, the entry of twenty humanitarian aid trucks through the Rafah border crossing was interrupted, without anyone taking responsibility for the fiasco. Even the president of the United States, Joe Biden, took to the stage to criticize that the assistance “isn’t going fast enough”.
Israel refuses to let fuel enter these convoys because it would end up in the hands of Hamas. He claims to have aerial images showing that Hamas has fuel depots in Gaza that make entry unnecessary.
The United Nations agency for Palestine refugees has warned that it will stop its operations in Gaza today, Wednesday night, if it does not get fuel before then.
The World Health Organization also warns that six hospitals in the strip have closed due to lack of fuel and two others have suspended some critical services for the same reason, while demanding the safe passage of fuel and supplies for health centers.
Some of the facilities awaiting WHO supplies and fuel in northern Gaza include Al Shifa hospital, where bed occupancy is already approaching 150%, according to the organization.
The World Health Organization delivered 34,000 liters of fuel to four major hospitals in southern Gaza and the Palestinian Red Crescent to maintain their ambulance services. However, he reported that this amount is only sufficient to maintain the operation of these facilities for little more than 24 hours.
Life goes on in the Middle East
