Israeli forced war leads to famine to 2.3 million Palestinians, says UN
WEST BANK: Children sit near rubble, in the aftermath of an Israeli raid, at Nour Shams camp, in Tulkarm, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank March 21, 2024.— Wire photo
CAIRO: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Cairo on Thursday as part of talks with Arab officials to seek a ceasefire in Gaza, after Israel’s prime minister told US Republicans there would be no let-up in the war against innocent civilians, as 2.3 million people at the verge of famine.
In Gaza itself, Israel’s offensive focused on the Al Shifa hospital, the only partially working medical facility in the north of the Strip, for a fourth day, and local residents said they had seen buildings inside the complex in flames. Five months of war have created critical food shortages among Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians that in some areas now exceed famine levels, according to the United Nations.
“We’re pressing for an immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages,” Blinken told the Arabic broadcaster Al Hadath. “That would bring immediate relief to so many people who are suffering in Gaza – the children, the women, the men.” He said the US had drafted a resolution at the United Nations to that effect. Ceasefire talks resumed this week in Qatar, centred on a truce of around six weeks that would allow the release of 40 Israeli hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails.
However, the main sticking point remains that Hamas says it will release hostages only as part of an agreement that would end the war, while Israel says it will discuss only a temporary pause. “I think the gaps are narrowing, and I think an agreement is very much possible,” Blinken told Al Hadath. “The Israeli team is present, has authority to reach an agreement.” Blinken and Sisi together reviewed progress in the talks, Sisi’s office and the US State Department said.
Sisi stressed the need for a truce 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 the enclave’s population is now sheltering, pressed against the Egyptian border. As concern over starvation in Gaza mounts, officials from 36 countries and UN agencies gathered in Cyprus to discuss ways to expedite humanitarian deliveries.
