The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced yesterday that its troops “mistakenly” killed 3 of the 138 hostages believed to be still held by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIL). “During the fighting in Xejaiya [in the northern strip], the IDF mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat. As a result, the troops fired at them and killed them,” a military statement said.
A “mistake” that will surely lead to a queue today, Saturday, the day on which the families of the abductees mobilize more forcefully around their camp in Tel-Aviv every week. With each passing day, the families are more publicly showing their irritation with Netanyahu. In addition to these three deaths, the fact that also yesterday the spokesperson of the Government, Eylon Levy, assured that twenty more hostages are dead in the strip. “We know that they have been killed in captivity”, he said, so the official figure could drop drastically to 118 hostages.
On the other hand, the Rafah crossing will no longer be the only way for humanitarian aid to enter the strip, after the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu approved yesterday the reopening of Kerem Shalom, the border control for trucks located at the apex of Gaza , Egypt and Israel. The measure is a concession to the United States after this week President Joe Biden raised the tone against the Israeli prime minister for his obstinacy when discussing the two-state solution and for the indiscriminate bombings. Biden said Netanyahu “has to change” because he is “starting to lose” international support.
The measure is temporary, but it will allow aid to be doubled in Gaza, since the Rafah crossing only has the capacity to control 100 trucks per day, out of the 200 agreed with the United States – which finances much of the material and groceries – in the framework of the truce with Hamas. “The United States has committed to pay for the improvement of the Rafah crossing as soon as possible to allow the transfer of humanitarian aid only through Rafah after passing Israeli security checks,” said a statement from the Israeli government. .
Israel carries out extensive checks on all trucks entering Gaza, which slows the flow of aid. “Security checks are needed to ensure that nothing but food, medicine and water enters,” said Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Meirav Eilon Xahar, yesterday.
On the other hand, the National Security Advisor of the United States, Jake Sullivan, was satisfied with Israel’s gesture. “We hope that this new opening will ease congestion and help facilitate the delivery of vital assistance to those who urgently need it in Gaza,” said Sullivan, who met yesterday in Ramallah with the president of the National Authority Palestine (ANP), Mahmoud Abbas.
Sullivan communicated to the Palestinian leader the need for the ANP to be “reshaped and revitalized”. An implicit reference to US support for the PNA to rule Gaza after the war, something Netanyahu refuses, in another of the prime minister’s disagreements with the White House.
Sullivan hinted that the Gaza offensive could be changing its strategy, slowing down the bombings – as the US and the international community are calling for – to move to a selective phase, in which attacks are directed at Hamas leaders and commanders and the GIP “We can’t telegraph to the enemy what the plan is,” Sullivan said.
Abbas, for his part, reminded Sullivan that “military and security solutions have proven to be futile and do not bring security or stability to the region.”
The death toll in Gaza was last night at 18,787. While the bombings and ground fighting continue, Hamas claimed responsibility for launching rockets against Jerusalem yesterday, several of which ended up hitting the vicinity of a hospital in Ramallah (West Bank). On the other hand, the army’s three-day raid in Jenin, also in the West Bank, caused the death of three Palestinians and more than a hundred arrests, many of which were preventive and arbitrary.
