There is little optimism that three back-to-back summits addressing the situation in Gaza — a humanitarian conference in Paris on 9 November, followed by an Arab League summit in Riyadh on 11 November and, on 12 November, a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, again in Riyadh —will improve humanitarian conditions in the Strip.
According to an Egyptian government source, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting in Amman with five Arab foreign ministers made it clear that Washington is still refusing to push for a ceasefire. Nor has Blinken been able to convince the Israelis to allow a humanitarian pause, however brief, to allow for the entry and distribution of food, water and medical supplies.
According to Arab diplomatic sources, the core of the problem is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set a hard, if not unattainable, target — the total destruction of Hamas and its military capabilities.
“Netanyahu needs more time to emerge from this horrendous war with anything concrete and the US is willing to give him this time,” said one Arab diplomat. He added that judging by the “outcome” of Blinken’s talks in the region, and meetings held with CIA Director William Burns, Israel is unlikely to agree to a ceasefire for at least three weeks.
He added that though, because of “pressure over its support for an effective genocide in Gaza” Washington is pushing for “a humanitarian pause to allow the entry of desperately needed relief material into Gaza,” there is no indication as to when “Israel will agree to this humanitarian pause.”
“For now, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu wants to keep bombing Gaza, in the hope of killing top Hamas leaders, especially Gaza-based Yehia Al Sinwar, and is blocking all diplomatic initiatives, not just from the Americans but also from the Europeans.”
As Israel’s war on Gaza enters a second month, more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed, with many of the victims children. This week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children” with
hundreds of girls and boys being killed or injured every day.
UNICEF warned this week that “the cost to children and their communities of the escalating violence will be borne out for generations to come.”
“Children are dying at an alarming rate and being denied their basic rights.”
UNICEF called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for unrestricted humanitarian access to allow aid to reach children and families in need.”
WHO estimates that 420 children are killed or injured in Gaza every day as a result of the “catastrophic situation”. According to WHO: “The lives of newborns also hang by a thread. If hospitals run out of fuel, the lives of an estimated 130 premature babies who rely on neonatal and intensive care services will be threatened, as incubators and other medical equipment will no longer function.”
This week Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s extremist minister of finance, said Israel will not allow fuel to enter Gaza under any circumstances. Diplomatic sources say Arab foreign ministers told Blinken that Israel needs to “find a way” to allow fuel to get in “if only to keep the hospitals running”.
Sources with national and international relief organisations told Al-Ahram Weekly on Tuesday morning that Israel is not just blocking the entry of relief materials into Gaza, but is also sending back items, including medicine and medical supplies, with no justification.
“Not every truck that gets screened and passes into Gaza gets to unload its cargo. That can only happen at the whim of the Israelis,” said one source.
“If we are serious about relief, we need uninterrupted safe access for 1,000 trucks every day,” he added.
On Tuesday, the UN said just 569 trucks had been allowed into Gaza since the beginning of the war.
A workable plan for the safe entry of humanitarian relief and the exit and reentry of ambulances carrying Palestinians with multiple injuries will be high on the various summits’ agendas. A Cairo-based European diplomatic source said that “there are ideas being discussed not just between concerned states but also with international organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross.”
Mads Gilbert, a volunteer Norwegian physician who was able to enter Gaza just over a week ago, reports that the health sector is in a catastrophic state, not least because Israel continues to target health facilities based on “unproven claims” that Hamas uses them for military purposes.
A founding member of the Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC), he said that if Israel has proof for its claims it should show it to the world.
Arab and European diplomatic sources who spoke to the Weekly said that they fear that the Israeli blockade on Gaza, imposed since 2007, will become even more draconian once the war ends, arguing there could be a tripling of the list of banned materials assumed to have dual usage, including many essential medicines.
In press statements this week, Netanyahu said that Israel will be directly involved in managing the security of the Gaza Strip once the war ends.
Abeer Yassin, a senior researcher at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said that for years Israel has been waging “a calories war on Gaza”, noting that “the Israelis have long allowed only the bare minimum of calories to enter Gaza as part of its scheme to push Palestinians into despair.”
Egyptian security sources say that Israel appears determined to push as many of the 2.4 million Palestinians to leave Gaza as it can. According to one source, “the Israelis have always seen Gaza as a nightmare of which they want to be rid.”
This week, Israel’s Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu attracted international condemnation when he said one option in the war against Hamas is to drop a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip.
An Egyptian physician who attends to injured Palestinians coming for treatment in Egypt told Egyptian Minister of Health Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar this week that the types of multiple injuries and organ damage he is seeing indicate that Israel is using prohibited weapons in Gaza.
Earlier in the war, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that “Israel’s use of white phosphorus in military operations in Gaza puts civilians at risk of serious and long-term injuries.” HRW reported it had “verified videos” taken in Gaza “on 10 and 11 October 2023… showing multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port.”
* A version of this article appears in print in the 9 November, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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