The UN is sounding the alarm as hospitals in the Gaza Strip are running out of fuel for generators. Hamas releases video of suspected hostage. And US President Biden is visiting Israel.
Given the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees in the south of the Gaza Strip, aid workers are hoping that the Egyptian Rafah border crossing will be opened for humanitarian deliveries. It would be the only way to get help to the coastal strip sealed off by Israel. According to the Egyptian Red Crescent, around 2,000 tons of goods were available yesterday. The crossing initially remained closed.
People on the run
According to the UN, around a million people have now fled from the northern Gaza Strip to the south ahead of the expected Israeli ground offensive. The United Nations Emergency Relief Office (OCHA) sounded the alarm that water, food and fuel were running low.
Crisis diplomacy continues: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is expected to pay a solidarity visit to Israel today. The federal government assumes that a total of around 4,000 Germans have left Israel since the Islamist Hamas terrorist attacks began, including around 3,000 German citizens on special flights organized by the Foreign Office.
Fear of generators being shut down in hospitals
Hospitals in the Palestinian coastal strip still had 24-hour fuel reserves to run emergency generators, OCHA said. A shutdown would put thousands of patients in “immediate danger.” The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said it was no longer able to adequately provide for the increasing number of refugees in the south of the Gaza Strip. There is a lack of space in the accommodation, water and psychological support.
Hamas releases first video of suspected hostage
Meanwhile, the Islamist Hamas released a video with a suspected hostage in the Gaza Strip for the first time. In it you can see how a young woman has a wound on her arm bandaged and then she speaks directly into the camera. “I am 21 years old and come from Shoham,” says the woman in the one-minute clip. She was currently in Gaza and was being treated in a hospital there. “Please get me out of here as quickly as possible,” she continues.
It was unclear where, when and under what circumstances the video was taken. According to media reports, it is said to be an Israeli who also has French nationality. Accordingly, the woman was reported missing after the massacre by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel.
The Israeli military announced that night that the woman had been kidnapped. The army is in contact with the family. Everything is being done to get the hostages back. “In the video, Hamas attempts to portray itself as a humane organization. Yet it is a murderous terrorist organization responsible for the murder and kidnapping of babies, women, children and seniors,” the Israeli army said.
More air strikes on Gaza Strip – 199 Israelis kidnapped
Israel had asked more than a million Palestinians in the north of the coastal strip to evacuate to the south in view of a likely impending ground offensive. In response to massacres by the Islamist Hamas about a week ago, the Israeli military sealed off the Gaza Strip and launched massive air strikes on the densely populated coastal strip.
According to the military, the bombings continued on Monday night. Israel says it wants to destroy the Hamas ruling party in the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 1,400 people in the terrorist attack on Israel. In addition, according to the army, at least 199 people were abducted to the Gaza Strip according to the latest information. According to information from the Gaza Strip, the number of Palestinians killed rose to 2,750.
The Israeli army said six senior Hamas members had been killed so far. These include members of both the military and political wings.
Israel denies reports of ceasefire
Meanwhile, Israel denied reports of an alleged ceasefire with Hamas. “There is no ceasefire,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said. There had previously been reports that a ceasefire lasting several hours was intended to allow foreign citizens to travel to Egypt and to allow relief supplies to be imported via the Rafah border crossing.
Israel and Egypt have reportedly failed to agree on how to screen aid deliveries to Gaza to prevent arms smuggling.
Renewed shelling on the border between Israel and Lebanon
Firefights broke out again on the Israeli-Lebanese border on Monday. The Israeli army confirmed the shelling from Lebanon. Soldiers at the border were shot at. There are no reports of injuries. The Israeli army responded with artillery fire.
The Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah said it had attacked five Israeli posts in the border area. According to a Lebanese security source, a Lebanese Army post was also hit in the Israeli army’s counterattacks.
Israel evacuates 28 locations in southern Lebanon
After repeated attacks on Israel by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia from southern Lebanon, places up to two kilometers away from the border area are to be evacuated. The office of Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galant said this affected 28 towns on the northern border. Israel reinforced its troops there.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel would respond decisively to any attack on its territory. The army is capable of dealing with two or more fronts. On Sunday, the army declared a four-kilometer-wide strip of the border area a restricted zone.
Blinken: US President Biden visits Israel on Wednesday
US President Joe Biden wants to visit Israel tomorrow. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced this in Tel Aviv. Yesterday, Blinken met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Izchak Herzog for the second time in a few days. Blinken had already met the two in Israel on Thursday.
In the conversation with Netanyahu, Blinken reported on his discussions in the region and received an update on the situation in Israel, the State Department in Washington said. He spoke to Netanyahu and Herzog about protecting civilians and efforts to release hostages held by Hamas.
US President Biden believes it would be a “big mistake” if Israel reoccupied the Gaza Strip. “The extreme elements of Hamas do not represent the entire Palestinian people. And I think it would be a mistake for Israel to reoccupy Gaza,” Biden said in an interview on the CBS news program “60 Minutes.”
In response to moderator Scott Pelley’s question about whether the US President would support an occupation of Gaza at this point, Biden even spoke of a “big mistake.” However, he continued, “going in and eliminating the extremists” was necessary. The conversation in the White House, broadcast on Sunday evening (local time), was recorded late on Thursday.
British Prime Minister: Around 500 people have been flown out so far
The British government has so far flown out several hundred people following the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel. “We have organized eight flights so far and brought out more than 500 people,” Sunak said on Monday in Parliament in London. Further flights were scheduled to take off on the same day. They are also working with neighboring states to facilitate land evacuations for their citizens in Gaza and the West Bank, Sunak said. He spoke to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi about the Rafah border crossing.
Sunak also confirmed that at least six British citizens died in the attacks on Israel. Ten more people are missing, Sunak said in Parliament in London. It is feared that some of them are dead. Sunak condemned the Hamas attack.