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UN Says Only 906 Aid Truckloads Have Reached Gaza Since Rafah Operation Began


Friday, 24 May 2024 03:18 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/rafah-gaza-aid/2024/05/24/id/1166089/

Aid access to the Gaza Strip is extremely limited with less than 1,000 truckloads of humanitarian assistance entering the enclave since May 7, after Israel began a military operation in southern Gaza’s Rafah area, the United Nations said on Friday. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that between May 7 and May 23, only 906 truckloads entered the enclave of 2.3 million people, where a famine looms amid the war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said about 800 of those truckloads were food supplies.

OCHA said 143 truckloads passed through the Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing in Gaza’s south, while in Gaza’s north 62 passed through the Erez crossing and 604 via Erez West. It said 97 truckloads have come through a U.S.-built floating pier in central Gaza that began operating a week ago.

The Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza has been closed since Israel began stepping up its military operation in the area, creating a backlog of aid in Egypt where some of the food supplies have begun to rot.

Israel and the United States had called on Egypt, which is also concerned about the risk of Palestinians being displaced from Gaza, to reopen the border. Egypt had said it was closed due to the threat posed to aid work by Israel’s military operation.

On Friday, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi agreed with U.S. President Joe Biden by phone to temporarily send humanitarian aid and fuel to the U.N. via the Kerem Shalom crossing, the Egyptian presidency said. Aid shipments could begin as soon as Friday evening, said Egyptian security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United Nations welcomes the move, Dujarric said. On Thursday he said: “There are a lot of doorways into Gaza. … Whether by land or by sea, we don’t control those doorways, but we want them all to be open.”

OCHA said on Friday its figures do not include commercial trucks because the U.N. has been unable to observe private-sector deliveries through Kerem Shalom crossing due to insecurity.

“Additionally, just over 1 million liters of fuel have entered the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the military operation in Rafah,” OCHA said in an update posted online.

“This represents an average of 29% of fuel allocations that would have been received under arrangements in place prior to 6 May, further affecting the functioning of bakeries, hospitals, water wells, and other critical infrastructure,” it said.

The U.N. says at least 500 trucks a day of aid and commercial goods need to enter Gaza. In April, an average of 189 trucks entered a day – the highest since the war started in October.

Israel is retaliating against Hamas, which rules Gaza, over an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian militants in which more than 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Nearly 130 hostages are believed to remain captive in Gaza.

Israel launched an air, ground and sea assault on the blockaded Palestinian territory, killing more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

© 2024 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

Read more: UN Says Only 906 Aid Truckloads Have Reached Gaza Since Rafah Operation Began | Newsmax.com

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International Politics, War

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McConnell Warns Biden: Refusing Israeli Aid Will Prove ‘Grave’


By Sandy Fitzgerald    |   Thursday, 09 May 2024 03:32 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/politics/mitch-mcconnell-biden-israel/2024/05/09/id/1164123/

The “consequences will be grave” if President Joe Biden can’t find the “political courage to stand up to radicals on his left flank” and support Israel, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday. 

“Other allies who rely on ‘ironclad’ guarantees from America will question our commitment,” the Kentucky Republican said while speaking out against Biden’s warnings that U.S. weapons will not be used in an Israeli attack on Rafah out of concerns for civilian casualties.

McConnell said that Biden’s refusal to back an ally at war will backfire. 

“Nations on the fence, in the middle of a major power competition for influence, will look elsewhere for their own security, and our enemies will be emboldened,” the senator said.

McConnell acknowledged that “war is hell” and “innocent noncombatants suffer,” but still, “civilized nations hold themselves to the highest standards and take deliberate care to minimize harm to civilians.”

Israel, he added, goes to “great lengths” to avoid civilian casualties, including accepting “great risk” to its soldiers to avoid endangering innocent civilians.

“But the forces sworn to erase Israel from the earth follow a different code,” he said. “[To] Hamas, civilian casualties are not tragedies; they’re tools of the trade.”

“To these savages, kidnapping, torture, rape, and murder aren’t crimes; they’re tactics,” McConnell said. “For terrorists around the world, human suffering is the weapon of choice. And Hamas seeks to magnify it.”

He added that Israel tried to avoid the war, including negotiating a cease-fire, but Hamas “used this cease-fire to plan and prepare for war” and launched its attacks on Oct. 7. 

Hamas also chose to put fighting positions in hospitals, schools, and the United Nations, while directly attacking humanitarian aid crossings to exploit human suffering “because it works.”

“They know the media will cover it — ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ — because they know it creates an international rush to blame Israel,” said McConnell. 

This has led to “leftist fifth columns and useful idiots on university campuses” to express solidarity with the terrorists and forcing Biden to choose between a “supposedly ‘ironclad’ commitment to an ally under attack and the will of his leftist political base.”

And, McConnell said, “Hamas bet correctly.”

McConnell further warned that Biden is old enough to remember the 1968 protests at the Democratic National Convention, but he doesn’t choose to heed what happened. 

“Caving to the college radicals will only whet their appetite to spend the summer demanding further anti-Israel concessions at his party’s convention,” said McConnell. 

Sandy Fitzgerald ✉

Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics. 

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International Politics

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