Almost two million Gazans have been driven from their homes by the war between Israel and Hamas, 85% of all Gaza, according to the UN. And 40% of its population is currently at risk of starvation, the organization insists. The dead in the strip are already more than 21,300, reports the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian enclave. But only now, with these figures that hide so many names, a new balloon of oxygen begins to emerge: Israel gives its approval “in principle” to Cyprus to open a maritime corridor between the EU member island and the strip
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed this yesterday: “In principle there is authorization to use this [sea] route, but there are still some practical problems to be solved”. There is agreement on Israeli supervision. And you know key.
It is hoped that Cyprus can contribute to increasing humanitarian aid to the 2.4 million Gazans. It is just 400 kilometers from the coast of Gaza. But whether it means something more remains to be seen, since on the ground the war no longer has “safe zones” and the fighting extends to Rafah, in the south of the strip, on the border with Egypt and where have concentrated a large part of the internally displaced, the United Nations assures. And not only In the north of the Palestinian enclave, both Gaza City and Jabalia are the scene of intense fighting and a UN refugee agency clinic has been destroyed in the Beit Hanun area. There is also fighting in refugee camps in central Gaza, and at least five people were killed on Thursday in a children’s school that was now being used as a shelter for displaced people.
Nothing breathes in Gaza and the leaders of Hamas are still nowhere to be found after 84 days of Israeli offensive by land, sea and air. Doubts about his ability to complete the main military objective in Gaza are growing at the same time that he does not give up the pressure of the relatives of the hostages in the hands of Hamas, 129 according to the Government of Israel, to achieve their release. Their posters are the only ones that resist the barriers to access the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.
On the border between Israel and Lebanon, moreover, everything gets complicated. Hizbullah rocket alerts are repeated every day on the mobile phones of Israelis and on Wednesday Benny Gantz, minister without portfolio in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and a strong man in the war cabinet, warned in Beirut: “The situation on our northern border demands a change. Time for a diplomatic solution is running out. If the Lebanese Government does not act to prevent the bombings in the north and move Hizbullah away from the border, our forces will.”
Launching an offensive in Lebanon sooner rather than later to fight the Iran-backed militia is on the table. The exchange of rockets has not stopped for weeks and during the last few days it has increased in intensity and has reached areas so far beyond its reach, such as the south of the Golan Heights.
Israel leans more every day that passes by the possibility of facing two interventions on the ground in parallel: in Gaza and in Lebanon. Any sign of a temporary truce is fading in the region. Cairo communicates, in fact, that it has not received any response to its plan to resolve the conflict in Gaza.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad insist they will not negotiate a new ceasefire as long as Israel’s attacks on the Strip continue and make the release of the Israeli hostages captured on October 7 an “all in exchange” condition of all”. For Israel, the essential thing is to release the hostages and end Hamas. The impasse continues there and is added to the West Bank, which is experiencing levels of violence not seen in two decades.
Yesterday morning a simultaneous Israeli raid on Jenin, Ramallah, Hebron and other West Bank cities ended with a Palestinian youth dead. Israel asserts that it has acted against the financing of Hamas and confiscated “tens of millions of shekels” in various premises, including those of currency exchange. But on Wednesday six more young people died in Tulkarem and in the area this year there are already 520 dead Palestinians, more than a hundred minors. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has called on Israel to “put an end to the illegal killings” of Palestinians and “settler violence” in the West Bank.
The Israel Museum in Jerusalem houses like no other in the country the long and turbulent history of the Middle East region since before Israel was Israel and Palestine was Palestine. Today, in the middle of the war, rooms are closed due to the “security situation”, explains a red sign at the entrance. On this, as on the various fronts on which Israel is fighting, there is nothing to suggest that normalcy will soon return.
