Gaza’s Shifa Hospital becomes a war zone as Antony Blinken meets Sisi in Cair

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the Egyptian president on Thursday for talks on securing a ceasefire in Gaza, as Palestinians in Gaza were desperate to celebrate Ramadan without murdered relatives or adequate food for their children.

In Gaza, the Israeli offensive focused for a fourth day on Al Shifa Hospital, the only partially functioning medical facility in the northern Gaza Strip. Locals said they saw buildings in the complex in flames.

As hunger spreads in the densely populated enclave, where five months of war have led to critical food shortages, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said only expanding land crossings into Gaza can prevent famine.

Blinken met Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Cairo after ceasefire talks resumed in Qatar this week, centering on a roughly six-week ceasefire that would allow the release of 40 Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians who were held in Israeli prisons.

Blinken told Arab broadcaster Al Hadath that such a ceasefire would “bring immediate relief to so many people suffering in Gaza – the children, the women, the men,” and that the US had drafted a UN resolution to that effect. .

The main sticking point remains that Hamas says it will only release hostages as part of a deal that would end the war, while Israel says it will only discuss a temporary pause.

“I think the differences are narrowing and I think an agreement is very possible,” Blinken told Al Hadath.

According to Gaza health authorities, the Israeli offensive has now killed nearly 32,000 Palestinians.

The war was sparked by militants from Hamas, which rules Gaza, who stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.

European Union leaders meeting in Brussels are also expected to call for a ceasefire. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged a stronger message to Israel to protect civilians, saying the country “has the right to defend, (but) not to take revenge.”

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

Sisi stressed the need for a ceasefire to address the escalating humanitarian crisis and warned of the dangers of a military operation in Rafah, the last zone of relative safety for civilians where more than half of the enclave’s population now shelters, against the Egyptian border.

But an Israeli official insisted Israel would take control of Rafah even if it caused a rift with the United States, saying a quarter of Hamas’s original force was there.

“It is going to happen. And it will happen even if Israel is forced to fight alone,” Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said in a podcast.

Officials from 36 countries and UN agencies met in Cyprus to discuss ways to speed up humanitarian deliveries.

One relief ship arrived in the enclave from Cyprus last week and two others are expected to depart soon.

But aid groups say the shipments are logistically difficult and cannot replace deliveries by truck.

“Recent efforts to deliver food by air and sea are welcome, but only expanding land border crossings will allow large-scale deliveries to prevent famine,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“Once again we call on Israel to open more border crossings and accelerate the access and delivery of water, food, medical supplies and other humanitarian assistance into and within Gaza.” At a Gaza school run by the UN Palestinian refugee agency, thousands of people fleeing Israeli airstrikes barely had enough food to break the daily Ramadan fast, unlike fellow Muslims elsewhere who celebrated the holy month with post- fasting treats.

“Go and look at all the markets… You won’t find a single can of broad beans or chickpeas for the children to eat,” said Basel al-Soueidi, who was sheltering in the Jabalia refugee camp.

He was cooking some red lentils for the surviving members of his family, seventeen of whom died in the war.

“I miss them all – there is no food or water, there is nothing. All my cousins ​​have died, there is no one left. We all used to come together during Ramadan, with my uncle,” he said, almost in tears.

Rabah, a father of five, said the area was a war zone, with people trapped in their homes amid clashes on the streets.

“Israel sent tanks back into the heart of Gaza City to destroy what remains of its homes and roads,” he said.

Israel said its forces had killed more than 50 Hamas gunmen in the past day, bringing the number of fighters killed around the hospital to 140, along with two Israeli soldiers.

It said it had located military infrastructure and weapons in and around the facility, with images of AK-47 automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and other artillery.

Military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said many Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters were hiding in Al Shifa.

“When we entered the hospital, we found terrorists fighting against us here in this area,” he said.

Night vision videos distributed by the Israeli army showed soldiers loading food and water into the hospital.

Hamas has denied that the hospital houses fighters and said the dead were wounded patients and displaced persons.

First print: March 21, 2024 | 11:35 PM IST