Israel has decided to close the crossing point to the Gaza Strip through which humanitarian aid was channeled after shells were fired, Israeli authorities announced on Tuesday (May 18th). Shells were fired at the Kerem Shalom crossing point, “While trucks entered carrying civilian aid relayed by international humanitarian organizations”, said Cogat, the Israeli body responsible for civilian operations in the Palestinian territories: “It was decided to stop the entry of the other trucks. “
The UN had however welcomed, a few hours earlier, the opening announced by the Israeli authorities of this passage, so that humanitarian aid can enter it, nine days after the start of the crisis. Israeli authorities had not specified for how long it would open, however.
Humanitarian aid needs are urgent in the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli blockade for nearly fifteen years. The bombings have killed more than 200 Palestinians there, including about 60 children, since May 10, Israel having since that day launched airstrikes on the enclave, in response to rocket fire from the Islamist movement Hamas. . The rocket attacks in question came on the fourth day of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem, after Palestinian families were threatened with eviction from their homes in favor of Jewish settlers. East Jerusalem remains, under international law, illegally occupied – and in the process of annexation – by Israel.
The conflict risks causing a humanitarian disaster, and the UN estimates that some 47,000 Palestinians have been displaced as more than 130 residential and commercial buildings in the enclave have been destroyed.
Meanwhile, two people were killed Tuesday in Israel after rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli police, whose total toll shows 12 dead since the start of hostilities. “A place where foreign workers live was hit directly by a rocket”police said in a statement. “There are two dead, one seriously injured, another moderately, and three slightly injured”, he was clarified.
A Franco-Egyptian-Jordanian interview
French President Emmanuel Macron and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi met at noon on Tuesday by videoconference with King Abdullah II of Jordan to work on mediation in the Middle East “With the objective of a rapid ceasefire and preventing the conflict from spreading”, announced the Elysee.
Emmanuel Macron had already discussed Monday with his Egyptian counterpart, present in Paris, and announced their common intention to seek Jordan’s support, to mediate the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
This mediation “Is one of the elements which would make it possible to accompany a ceasefire, the key to allow the reunification of the Palestinian components and to guarantee the non-recourse to violence”, Emmanuel Macron said on Monday at a press conference at the end of an international aid conference in Sudan. “We have decided to have a discussion with the King of Jordan in the coming days to see how to make a concrete proposal on this path”, he had detailed.
Egypt, which has signed a peace treaty with Israel and shares its border with Gaza, seeks to reconnect with its historic regional role by offering its mediation in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, while Washington keeps a low profile in international negotiations.
