Whatever the “possible way out of the impasse we find ourselves in Gaza” evoked yesterday by the president of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Borge Brende, many will prick up their ears today and tomorrow in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia , for some more details.
ON THE MARGINS OF THE MEETING special organized by the main body of world capitalism, with 92 countries and a thousand delegates gathered around the myth of “global collaboration for growth and development”, a debate will in fact be held on the war in Gaza which for Brende could become “very important”. With the state of the art of negotiations on the ceasefire at its center – given the terrifying ongoing humanitarian crisis – and the release of the hostages. According to the head of the Davos club, there is unspecified “news” about the latter case.
The members of the delegation that Egypt, increasingly anxious about the “encroachment” effects that the military operation on Rafah would trigger, could know more, sent to Israel to try to relaunch the dynamics of proposals and counter-proposals put on the table up to now by the Israeli government and Hamas. Whose military wing yesterday released a new video showing two of the hostages still alive. According to the Israeli media, they are Keith Siegal, who has dual US citizenship, kidnapped on October 7 in the Kfar Aza kibbutz, and Omri Miran, taken in Nir Oz.
RETURNING FROM CHINA and also expected in Israel in the next few days, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also be in Riyadh and, among the leaders most directly interested, the prime ministers of Jordan, Egypt and Iraq. For Turkey there will be Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, while the contact group of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League following the war in Gaza will be at the center of several bilateral meetings. It is unclear whether Iran will be included in the discussion or is just part of the “problem.” While the almost decorative sense of the presence of the president of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas is clear. Who yesterday wrote a warm letter of thanks to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for his support for the two-state solution and Madrid’s peace efforts.
Peace that couldn’t be further from Gaza. Between Friday and Saturday, the Tel Aviv army claims to have struck “25 terrorist targets in the Strip, including military facilities where armed terrorists operated, weapons depots, underground infrastructure and other terrorist infrastructure.” During the same 24 hours, at least 32 victims were counted in the Strip and a third were children, raising the total count to 34,388 dead and 77,437 injured.
BY MACHINE-GUNDED FISHERMEN while they cast their nets on the repeated raids by the Israeli air force on the refugee camps of Nuseirat and Bureij, in the Wadi Gaza area and again, on several occasions, on Rafah, it was another day of terror and blood for the population. Which put a strain on the emergency teams, increasingly short of equipment, busy trying to extract victims and survivors from the rubble of some affected residential buildings.
On the humanitarian-military front, regarding the temporary pier that the United States intends to build under the control of Israel to send aid by sea, the British have said they are willing to also contribute as “riders”, i.e. transferring the load from the pier to the land firm, a service that the US military would not have guaranteed.
Meanwhile, the health authorities of the Strip have launched a new desperate alarm for the risks of epidemics that increase with the arrival of the heat, on an already exhausted and malnourished population, after the overflowing of waste water and the accumulation of waste among the rubble. The only water available is contaminated and even a banal disinfectant like chlorine does not pass Israeli controls.
For the rest, things are not improving in the West Bank either. A real emergency is the continuous assaults by settlers against Palestinian farmers in various locations in the Jordan Valley, such as in Hebron and Bethlehem, with houses and crops set on fire. And the situation remains highly tense even on the border between Israel and Lebanon, with the Iron Dome system having to come into operation yesterday to intercept the drones launched by Hezbollah in response to the latest Israeli raid which caused three victims.
ABOUT THIS The step with which Lebanon has decided to accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes committed on its territory after 7 October 2023 appears to be a prelude to a demand for justice for the more than 70 civilian victims – including children, rescuers and journalists – caused by Israeli bombings.
