Israeli tanks open fire on hundreds of Gazans waiting for aid; Egypt's President exposes IDF blocking critical deliveries

The Cradle
Thu, 25 Jan 2024 17:26 UTC

© Mohammed Zaanoun/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty

Hours after opening fire at a UN shelter housing thousands of Palestinians, Israeli tanks killed dozens lining to receive aid supplies

At least 20 Palestinians were killed, and 150 injured on 25 January after Israeli tanks opened fire at Gazans lined up to receive humanitarian aid at the Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza City, north of the strip.

"The Israeli occupation committed a new massacre against ... hungry [Gazans] who were waiting for humanitarian aid at the Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza, resulting in 20 martyrs and the injury of 150," Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

"The number of martyrs is likely to increase as a result of dozens of serious injuries that arrived at Al-Shifa Medical Complex, which lacks medical capabilities," Qudra said.

Comment: Footage:

Al-Shifa Hospital has been bombarded, raided, and emptied at gunpoint by Israeli troops since the start of the war in Gaza.

The hospital "only has a few working doctors," Qudra added.

Thursday's massacre came one day after the Israeli army attacked a crowded shelter in Gaza's southern city of Khan Yunis.

At least 12 were killed and 75 were wounded in the attack, including 15 who are in critical condition, senior UNRWA official Thomas White said.

An Israeli tank shell struck the building in a shelter housing thousands of displaced Palestinians on Wednesday.

Tel Aviv said it has "currently ruled out" that its forces were responsible but was still investigating.

Israel has withdrawn some of its forces from Gaza in a limited scale-back of ground operations, which came following US advice to avoid harming civilians. Despite this, clashes still rage across all of Gaza, including the north - where Israel claims Hamas has been dismantled.

Comment: Indeed, Israel has pulled out some troops, but it hasn't pulled back on its genocide: Israel withdraws troop division from Gaza for 'R&R, training', US prepares to send 1,500 troops to Syria, Iraq

In the south, particularly in Khan Yunis, heavy clashes with the Palestinian resistance are constant, and Israeli warplanes continue to conduct daily carpet bombing campaigns.

Two of Khan Yunis' main hospitals, Al-Nasser Hospital and Al-Amal Hospital, remain "encircled" by the invading army as thousands of "terrified staff, patients and displaced people are trapped inside," the UN said.

"Persistent attacks on civilian sites in Khan Younis are utterly unacceptable and must stop immediately. People are being killed and injured. As fighting intensifies around hospitals and shelters hosting the displaced, people are trapped inside, and lifesaving operations are impeded," White went on to say.

"The situation in Khan Younis underscores a consistent failure to uphold the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law: distinction, proportionality, and precautions in carrying out attacks. This is unacceptable and abhorrent and must stop."

Comment: Middle East Monitor reports:

Egypt Sisi accuses Israel of impeding aid deliveries to Gaza

Egypt's President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, accused Israel on Wednesday of holding up aid deliveries for the Gaza Strip as a pressure tactic, the latest sign of friction between the two countries that have maintained a blockade on the enclave, Reuters reports.

"This is a form of pressure on the Gaza Strip and its people over the conflict and the release of hostages. They are using this as a pressure tool on the people of the Strip," Sisi said in comments to mark Egypt's national police day.

Indeed, either the people of Gaza flee, or Israel intends to ravage its concentration camp with starvation and disease: Vaccines begin flowing into Gaza amidst soaring childhood disease infection rates

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

Israel's response has left more than 25,000 dead and caused a severe humanitarian crisis, with most of Gaza's 2.3 million people left homeless and acutely short of food, water, medicine and fuel. More than 1.2 million people are crammed in the south of Gaza in and around the city of Rafah, raising fears in Egypt that Palestinians will be displaced across the border into its Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt, along with Qatar, has been negotiating with Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza, efforts that Sisi said in separate comments later on Wednesday were being intensified.

Limited amounts of aid have been delivered through the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza and, since December, through the Israeli-controlled Karm Abu Salem Crossing.

"We used to send Gaza 600 trucks a day. But, for the past two to three days, we are not delivering more than 200 to 220 trucks (of aid) per day. How are these people (in Gaza) living?" Sisi said.

"Egypt's Rafah Crossing is open 24/7 every day of the month. But the procedures taking place on the Israeli side for us to send in the aid without it being blocked by anyone, they are the reason (for holdups)."

Data from UN agency, UNRWA, shows fewer than 200 trucks entering Gaza daily since 24 January.

Border security

Israel says its role is only to inspect aid going into Gaza for security reasons, and has denied holding up or rejecting humanitarian supplies.

"Our inspection process is efficient, with us scaling up our capacities to maximise inspection capabilities," COGAT, an Israeli Defence Ministry agency that coordinates aid deliveries with the United Nations and humanitarian groups, said on social media platform X on Wednesday.

"There is no limit to the amount of aid that can enter Gaza."

Israel and Egypt, which have been at peace for more than four decades and deepened security and energy ties in recent years, have maintained a blockade on Gaza since Hamas took control there in 2007.

Earlier this week, Egypt issued a lengthy rebuttal of Israeli statements suggesting that the Egypt-Gaza border was not secure.

"These false allegations do not serve the peace treaty that Egypt respects, and it demands that the Israeli side to show its respect for it also," Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt's State Information Service, said in a statement, asserting that weapons had, instead, been smuggled into Gaza from Israel, the West Bank and the Mediterranean.

Earlier this month, Egypt twice announced that it had thwarted drug smuggling attempts on its north-eastern border, including one close to an inspection point for aid being sent to Gaza.

See also: IDF tells Egypt to evacuate its forces from Rafah border, Israel will not be 'responsible' safety of Cairo troops