San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
MEDIATORS HOLD TALKS TO FIRM UP TRUCE
Humanitarian aid, medical supplies flowing into Gaza
Egyptian mediators held talks Saturday to firm up an Israel-hamas cease-fire as Palestinians in the Hamasruled Gaza Strip began to assess the damage from 11 days of intense Israeli bombardment and humanitarian aid began to flow into Gaza.
Saturday marked the first full day of a truce that ended the fourth Israelhamas war in just over a decade. In the fighting, Israel unleashed hundreds of airstrikes against militant targets in Gaza, while Hamas and other militants fired more than 4,000 rockets toward Israel. More than 250 people were killed and more than 1,900 injured, the vast majority of them Palestinians in Gaza.
While Hamas sent thousands of rockets toward Istraeli cities, Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system thwarted an estimated 90 percent of them, officials have said. The Palestinian territories have no such system.
Drone video and photos showed some city blocks reduced to rubble, in between homes and businesses left standing.
Both Israel and Hamas have claimed victory.
On Saturday, hundreds of Hamas fighters wearing military camouflage paraded past the mourning tent for Bassem Issa, a senior commander killed in the fighting. The top Hamas leader in Gaza, Yehiyeh Sinwar, paid his respects in his first public appearance since the war began.
Israel bombed the house of Sinwar, along with that of other senior Hamas figures, as part of its attack on what it said was the group’s military infrastructure. Israel’s defense minister, Benny Gantz, has said Israel delivered a punishing blow to Hamas, and that top Hamas figures remained targets.
Still, there was a widespread expectation that the cease-fire would stick for now. But underlying issues remain unresolved, including an Israeli-egyptian border blockade, now in its 14th year, that is choking Gaza’s more than 2 million residents and a refusal by the Islamic militant Hamas to disarm.
The conflict that began May 10 has further sidelined Hamas’ main political rival, the internationally backed Palestinian Authority, which oversees autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Hamas’ popularity seemed to be growing as it positioned itself as a defender of Palestinian claims to Jerusalem.
On Friday, hours after the cease-fire took effect, thousands of Palestinians in the Al-aqsa Mosque compound chanted against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his self-rule government. “Dogs of the Palestinian Authority, out, out,” they shouted, and “The people want the president to leave.”
Despite his weakened status, Abbas will be the point of contact for any renewed U.S. diplomacy, since Israel and the West, including the United States, consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to meet with Abbas and Israeli leaders when he visits in the coming week. Abbas is expected to raise demands that any Gaza reconstruction plans go through the Palestinian Authority to avoid strengthening Hamas.
Abbas met Saturday with Egyptian mediators, discussing the rebuilding of Gaza and internal Palestinian relations, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
An Egyptian diplomat said Saturday that two teams of mediators are in Israel and the Palestinian territories to continue talks on firming up a cease-fire deal and securing long-term calm. He did not elaborate.
The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes deliberations.
Meanwhile, Gazans and international aid agencies raced to head off overlapping medical crises Saturday as hospitals already overrun with injuries from the bombardment by Israel struggled to treat a surge in coronavirus cases from packed shelters.
Tens of thousands of people crowded into underground chambers, community centers and other places across Gaza seeking to avoid the Israeli airstrikes, creating opportunities for the virus to spread.
“It has become a double burden during these 12 days,” said Abdel-latif alhajj, a physician and director of international cooperation for Gaza’s Health Ministry. “We are facing many more COVID-19 cases and mass casualties at the same time.”
Aid groups said they were rushing medical supplies to Gaza as fast as possible. But any shipments need approval from Israel, which maintains tight control over Gaza border crossing points.
Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said groups were prioritizing medical equipment and supplies, as well as hygiene kits, to help residents contend with collapsed civic infrastructure.
The United Nations said about 800,000 people in Gaza do not have regular access to clean piped water, as nearly 50 percent of the water network was damaged in the fighting.