The Evacuating From Gaza is its own deal
Thousands of wounded people and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crossed the Rafah border on Thursday, according to Al Husseini, an Austrian citizen
As people waited at the Rafah crossing on Thursday anticipating a second day of evacuations from Gaza into Egypt, the sound of an airstrike rattled the crowd, and a piece of shrapnel appeared to fall in the area.
“Reaching Rafah crossing was the most dangerous trip in my entire life,” Ala Al Husseini, 61, an Austrian citizen who evacuated on Wednesday, wrote in a text message from the bus that took him from Rafah to Cairo.
Reached by phone on Thursday after arriving in Cairo, he said that he had not been able to find any taxis or people who would drive him to the border because of a shortage of fuel in the Gaza Strip, and because phones were not working. He and the driver were terrified while driving from central Gaza to the peninsula, which is divided into eastern and western parts.
Mr. Al Husseini had a fear that if he was near a place that Israel thought was a Hamas target, he would be killed. He said that you could be damaged by any time. I was afraid to death.
More than 340 foreign nationals traveled through the crossing on Thursday, along with 21 wounded people and 21 others, according to Hisham Adwan. Additionally, 45 aid trucks had crossed into the battered enclave, he said.
The numbers of transiting people were similar to those the day before, when 361 foreign nationals entered Egypt, and ambulances carried 45 severely injured Palestinians, along with some of their family members, to Egyptian hospitals, according to Al Qahera, an Egyptian state-owned television channel.
Photos from Gaza on Thursday showed scores of people waiting at the crossing, and Egyptian television showed people pushing luggage carts on the other side of the checkpoint.
Mr. Al Husseini said that the scene at the border was chaotic. Officers were processing names manually, he said, and people who were not among the few hundred people being allowed out were among the crowds, some trying to leave.
Family members of those who could evacuate were sometimes barred from leaving, because they did not have foreign citizenship or the necessary documents, forcing people into difficult decisions.
Adala Abu Middain, a Palestinian with Egyptian citizenship, went to the crossing on Thursday with her sister, Dalal, and Dalal’s 6-year-old daughter, Maha, both of whom have American citizenship, she said. But she said that when they arrived at the crossing they were told that the niece could not leave.
The State Department has been in contact with around 400 Americans who have expressed a desire to leave, department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Wednesday. The total number is around 1,000 with their family members.
The first two women to leave Gaza since the July 21st Israel-Israel cease-fire meeting: Ms. Salah, 57, and Mr. Netanyahu
He is hopeful that they will eventually be allowed to leave. The situation is beyond imagination, he said. The death, bombing, and bloodshed.
After visiting the crossing numerous times, 57-year-old American women was finally able to travel through it on Thursday with her family. But her feelings were bittersweet.
After hearing the crossing might open, some of them went to it multiple times, only to find the gate shut. Many people were encouraged to head to the crossing, even though they weren’t due to leave, because of rumors and confusion about the crossing being open this week. The lack of internet and spotty phone connections meant some people may not even have heard that they were on the list to leave this week.
In interviews with The New York Times, several evacuees stated that showing up at the border with a foreign passport was not enough to reach safety.
Ms. Eldin was among the first few hundred people to leave Gaza since the war with Israel erupted nearly a month ago. Weeks of intensive negotiations among Israel, Egypt, the United States, Hamas and Qatar, which often acts as a diplomatic intermediary for Hamas, had yielded an agreement for the dual citizens, foreigners and their families, as well as Palestinian staff of international organizations, to leave Gaza through Egypt.
“It’s very difficult, but she should go,” Ms. Salah said in a phone call from the city of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, holding back tears. To be safe.
“I’m the guy that convinced Bibi to call for a cease-fire to let the prisoners out,” Mr. Biden said. National security officials said later that despite the president’s use of the word “cease-fire,” he was talking about a brief pause in the Israeli bombardment, not a broader end to hostilities across Gaza.
That is what happened on Oct. 20, officials said. Mr. Netanyahu was willing to make sure that there would be no shelling in the area where the Red Crescent picked up the two American women. That pause ended shortly after the women were released.
The Secretary of State arrived in Israel to urge the country to prioritize civilians in Gaza, as the offensive continues and tensions rise in the region.
An official in the Biden administration said on Friday that the process to get Americans and other foreigners out of Gaza had been held up because of Hamas trying to get its own wounded fighters included.
He spoke to a crowd after giving a speech. The White House later clarified that a brief cessation of military operations could give time to get the hostages out.
The calls have grown louder after Israel hit the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip with an air assault, but Netanyahu has resisted them. UNICEF, a children’s aid organization, described the damage as “horrific and appalling,” and it said in a statement that the attacks follow weeks of bombardment “that have reportedly resulted in more than 3,500 children killed.”
Officials say negotiations for more hostages’ release are continuing and that representatives of Qatar are assisting in the process. If the negotiations lead to a deal, officials would urge Israel to cease operations in that area where Hamas is planning to release hostages.
Hamas and Hezbollah need not cooperate in the second phase of the Gaza war, Hassan Nasrallah told his followers
The concern for the officials is that trucks need a way to get aid to neighborhoods in the middle of the fighting without being hit by an Israeli airstrike. And the official said the aid does no good if residents of a neighborhood are too afraid to come out of their homes to get the food or water.
At least 17 Israeli soldiers have died since Israel’s ground troops entered Gaza in what officials have called the “second phase” of the war. In total, 332 Israeli soldiers have died in the conflict so far, most of them on Oct. 7.
For any such measure to be effective, both sides in this conflict must abide by it. Hamas would have to agree, through its interlocutors, to stop launching rockets at Israel. Arab countries in the region should also put pressure on Hamas to release all of its hostages, which include many women and children.
The way Israel conducts its campaign to get rid of Hamas will have an effect. It matters because it’s the right and lawful thing to do. It matters that failure to do so plays into the hands of terror groups.
That is not Hezbollah’s plan, the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said in a widely anticipated address to his followers on Friday, his first public remarks since the start of the war.
But it fit with analysts’ assessment that Israel and Hezbollah appeared to be calibrating their actions to avoid setting off a broader war. Mr. Nasrallah described Hezbollah’s objective as a controlled battle along the border aimed at sapping Israel’s morale and resources.
Hezbollah leader Mr. Nasrallah said the Lebanon front had lessened the amount of forces that were going to escalate the attack on Gaza. “Some in Lebanon say that we are taking a risk, it’s true. But this risk is part of a beneficial, correct calculation.”
That message was most likely a disappointment to Hamas, a Hezbollah ally that is also supported by Iran, some of whose leaders have called on their regional partners to do more in the fight against Israel. Israel, the United States and other countries consider both groups terrorist organizations.
Mr Nasrallah warned that should hostilities with Israel escalate, Hezbollah would be ready. He said all the possibilities are open in Lebanon. “All the choices are available and we could resort to them at any time.”
During one of the most tense periods in the Middle East in recent years, though, Mr. Nasrallah’s speech offered a small measure of relief for many, that at least one powerful force was not seeking to plunge the region into even greater violence.
As Blinken addressed the media, Nasrallah spoke for the first time since the war between Israel and Hamas began. The leader of the Iran-backed group stopped short of announcing an all-out war with Israel, but threatened that the group’s actions will depend on developments in Gaza.
During his address, which was live-streamed to large gatherings of Hezbollah supporters around Lebanon, Mr. Nasrallah lashed out at the United States for its staunch support for Israel, accusing President Biden of dishonesty in telling Israel that it had the right to defend itself but that it had to respect human rights.
He also said the group was not intimidated by the two aircraft carriers that the United States had dispatched to the eastern Mediterranean, which could strike Hezbollah targets.
“Your fleets in the Mediterranean do not scare us and will never scare us,” Mr. Nasrallah said. “Your fleets that you threaten us with, we are prepared for them as well.”
Hezbollah could launch attacks on its military bases in Iraq, Syria, and other locations if the United States were to intervene in the war.
The carriers were sent to the Middle East to deter a bigger war, as the situation in Gaza has deteriorated with a rising death toll and mounting anger in the Arab world. Israel has resisted calls for a cease-fire or humanitarian pause to allow aid to enter the Gaza Strip.
Nasrallah denied that Hezbollah had any involvement in the October 7th incident. Hamas attacks on Israel that killed about 1,400 people — or having any knowledge of it beforehand. He celebrated it, however.
Thousands of Hezbollah supporters gathered to watch the speech on giant screens in locations throughout Lebanon. The largest site in the south has Hezbollah and Palestinian flags on it. When he appeared on the screen, supporters chanted, “We are here for you, Nasrallah.” Celebratory gunfire erupted when he appeared.
He said the future of this front with Israel hinges in large part on the development of events in Gaza. He called foreign nations, and on the U.S. in particular, to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza. He warned: “If you want to avoid a regional war, you must end the aggression on Gaza.”
After Hezbollah leader Hesham Nasrallah finished his speech in Lebanon, Sbeti fired a volley of gunshots into the air with a pistol. He said he would answer any call by Hezbollah to fight Israel.
A driver who had grown poorer during Lebanon’s deep economic crisis in recent years, Mr. Sbeti was not overly worried about the vast damage that Israel could do to Lebanon in a new war.
Israeli response to the Oct. 7 attacks in the Gaza Strip: “We are praying for the immediate release of the hostageless terrorists”
“We stand strongly for the proposition that Israel has not only the right but the obligation to defend itself and to do everything possible to make sure that this Oct. 7 can never happen again,” Blinken said Friday.
On Blinken’s third visit to the region and fourth to Israel since the outbreak of the war on Oct. 7, he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s war cabinet in Tel Aviv.
“Israel got advice from the best of friends about how to minimize civilian deaths while at the same time finding and finishing Hamas terrorists and their infrastructure of violence,” he said.
Blinken was set to make other visits elsewhere in the Middle East as the leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, threatened an escalation of skirmishes with Israel along the border between the two countries.
The death toll in Israel has gone up over the last couple of weeks. On Thursday, two Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza, “bringing the total number of soldiers killed since the start of ground operations to 17,” the U.N. said.
The US wants ahumanitarian pause in Gaza which would allow desperately needed aid to enter and the release of more than 200 hostages.
Despite mounting international criticism on Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks, Herzog sought to defend the country, claiming Israel has followed international law in its reaction.
Gaza residents are being told to leave the area through millions of text messages and phone calls and to be aware of upcoming airstrikes as well, according to Herzog.
“We are hearing from the outside the demonstration of the families, our heart goes out to them, we understand it, we want her immediate release,” Herzog said.
Hamas fighters left: Egypt’s response to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the problem of their entry into the United States
Eventually, the official said, the parties settled on a list of wounded Palestinians who were not Hamas fighters. The Palestinians who left were caught in the middle of the fighting.
In the negotiations for the release of Americans and other foreign nationals, it was said that representatives of the government of Qatar helped to broker the deal, because they have long had communications with Hamas.
The official who spoke to reporters on Friday said that Hamas eventually relented in its demands for the passage of its fighters. Egypt is concerned about the chance of terrorists flowing into its country if Hamas fighters leave Gaza.
Amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza Strip’s ruling Hamas movement, US officials said that it could take up to two months to get all the foreign nationals and their families out of the blockaded region. A US official said the process has been held up because Hamas was trying to get its own wounded fighters included.