As Gaza ceasefire debated, vital aid route to Rafah hangs in the balance

A United Nations report released Wednesday says more than a million people in Gaza are expected to “face death and starvation” by mid-July. “In the absence of a cessation of hostilities and increased access, the impact on Palestinian mortality and lives, today and for future generations, will increase significantly by the day,” the report said. .

The United States, Egypt and Israel are in talks to reopen the crossing, but the proposal they are discussing appears to depend on a ceasefire — a goal that, for now, seems distant. The plan calls for the crossing to be controlled by the Palestinian Authority, in cooperation with European Union border agents, according to a former Egyptian official familiar with the details.

However, the EU is unlikely to send personnel if the border remains an “active war zone”, an EU official said. And a Palestinian Authority official said Israel was reluctant to allow the West Bank-based government to take control of the border.

The three officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive ongoing negotiations. A White House National Security Council spokesperson said the United States was sending a “high-ranking delegation” to Cairo this week to continue discussions on the crossing, calling it “critical to ensure that “More humanitarian aid could flow to Gaza.”

The Israeli prime minister's office declined to comment.

Before Israel launched its offensive on May 6, Rafah was the most important two southern entry points for aid, as well as the Israeli Kerem Shalom crossing and the main fuel channel into Gaza. Rafah was also the only route for seriously injured Palestinians to leave the enclave for treatment abroad.

The Israeli offensive in Rafah has displaced more than a million Palestinians and made it increasingly difficult for humanitarian groups to access them. As border crossings were closed or became impossible to reach due to fighting, humanitarian officials said, nearby storage warehouses Rafah and Kerem Shalom have been destroyed or are inaccessible.

Israel says its military operations in southern Gaza are aimed at routing Hamas's remaining battalions – even as the offensive's disastrous consequences have intensified international outcry over the war and triggered renewed public pressure from President Biden in favor of a ceasefire.

On May 20, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he was seeking arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and defense minister for crimes including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. Days later, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its offensive on Rafah and reopen the border crossing with Egypt to allow the “unhindered” delivery of aid.

Israel has rejected both tribunals' actions as politically motivated, vowing to continue fighting until its goals are achieved.

Egypt had also banned trucks from transiting through Kerem Shalom, but relented after a May 24 call between Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, during which Biden agreed to begin negotiations on the passage from Rafah. These talks began on Sunday in Cairo.

Between May 7 and 28, the number of trucks carrying food and other essential supplies entering Gaza – excluding commercial shipments of fuel and other goods – fell to an average of 58 per day , compared to 176 per day the previous month, according to the UN. humanitarian agency. Aid groups have said for months that at least 500 trucks are needed every day to meet Gaza's basic needs.

“A deadly combination of closed border crossings, ongoing airstrikes, reduced logistical capabilities due to evacuation notices, and a failed Israeli authorization process…have created an impossible environment for agencies to humanitarian organizations can operate effectively,” Oxfam said in a statement on Tuesday.

Beyond Kerem Shalom “is an active and extremely dangerous combat zone. Long delays in Israeli approval to collect and move any aid that comes in means that missions often have to be halted,” the group said.

The former Egyptian official said the proposal discussed in Cairo would build on a formula used in 2005, when Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza and Palestinian Authority officials, backed by a mission of the EU, managed the passage. That agreement ended in 2007 when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, violently expelling its rivals from the Palestinian Authority.

It is possible “that members of the European Union would manage the passage to let in humanitarian aid,” the former Egyptian official said, and then distribute it to U.N. agencies. But he added that “Egypt completely rejects” any Israeli role in managing the aid or managing the crossing, which is supposed to be a demilitarized zone under the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty. .

Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, said last week the bloc had been “asked” to reactivate the border mission, but added it would not participate “without a commitment strength of the Palestinian Authority” and in agreement with Israel and Egypt. .

An EU mission would be “civil, that is, not military,” the EU official stressed, supporting Palestinian border agents with training and monitoring as it did from 2005. They would not check travel documents or use scanners in passing. “, said the official.

And any European deployment would require assurance that the border area is secure, the official said: “No one would send their personnel into an active war zone.” Safety is essential. »

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said Wednesday his government was ready to reopen Rafah if Israeli troops withdrew, citing the 2005 deal. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected any role for authorities. in Gaza, even after the war. It was “clear that Israel still opposes the presence of the Palestinian Authority in Rafah,” the Palestinian official told the Washington Post.

The official added that Israel had offered to let PA agents secure the crossing “without the support of the PA” – or without recognizing its affiliation – but the authority had refused.

“We are counting on Egyptian conditions, namely that Rafah will not be opened without Palestinian administration” in Gaza, the official said. Netanyahu's office declined to comment on the border negotiations.

With the closure of Rafah, the situation in southern Gaza “is more dire than it has ever been,” said Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. “It’s not just that people don’t have things,” she said. “Everyone knows there won’t be any food coming.”

“What you are experiencing now is panic and chaos,” she said.

Even before the Israeli offensive, the two southern crossings were not providing enough aid due to long inspection times and other obstacles, said Ricardo Pires, a UNICEF spokesman. “Now that’s not even the case,” he said. “What we saw happening in the north” – a region that the head of the World Food Program said slipped into famine last month – “has moved south.”

“What we are currently witnessing is a blocking of the humanitarian process. »

Amed Khan, an American philanthropist who shipped aid to Gaza throughout the war, said the border closure was the latest evidence of indifference to the plight of Gazans.

“Anyone who claims that caring for and feeding innocent civilians in Gaza is a priority for those in power is lying,” he said. Khan said he was now trying to ship goods from Cyprus to the Israeli port of Ashdod, for delivery to northern Gaza, where distribution has improved in recent weeks, according to aid officials . But nothing about the process was guaranteed.

“You have thousands of volunteers scrambling to try to find a way to get help and celebrating what little they can get, knowing it's not even enough,” he said. declared.

Shira Rubin contributed to this report.