5/23/2024–|Last updated: 5/23/202401:48 AM (Mecca time)
On Wednesday, the US State Department urged Egypt to do everything in its power to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, while Cairo stipulated the presence of a Palestinian party at the Rafah crossing to receive aid.
The US Secretary of State said, in a hearing in the House of Representatives, that the Rafah crossing leading to the southern Gaza Strip has been closed since the Israeli army took control of it on May 7.
He added that the fighting near the crossing made the task of providing aid difficult, but the flow of aid was still possible, in an apparent reference to the open Kerem Shalom crossing near Rafah.
“We must then find a way to ensure that aid entering through the Rafah crossing can pass safely, but we strongly urge our Egyptian partners to do everything they can to ensure that aid flows,” Blinken said.
Aid access to the southern Gaza Strip has been disrupted since Israel intensified its military operations in Rafah, a move that the United Nations says forced about 900,000 to flee and sparked tension with Egypt.
For his part, the head of the Egyptian Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, said – in a statement to the Cairo News Channel – that Egypt “requires the presence of a Palestinian party to receive aid at the Rafah crossing and will not deal with Israel at the crossing as it is an occupying authority.”
Last Monday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that the Israeli military presence and operations carried out by the Israeli army are conditions that expose truck drivers to danger, which led to the cessation of aid crossing the border.
Health services stopped
On the other hand, the government media office in the Gaza Strip announced, on Wednesday, that the governorates of Gaza and the northern Gaza Strip had completely stopped providing health services in light of the Israeli targeting of the health system during the war that has been ongoing since last October 7.
The media office said, in a statement, “The cessation of the health service in the Gaza and northern governorates portends an imminent humanitarian catastrophe that threatens 700,000 people.”
This comes in light of a devastating war waged by Israel on the Gaza Strip since last October 7, which has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that has claimed the lives of children and the elderly.
Israel continues the war despite the issuance of a decision by the International Court of Justice demanding immediate measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
