Middle East
Israel says it will keep control of Gaza-Egypt crossing, continues West Bank operation
Associated Press
January 22, 2025
Israeli military vehicles guard a road where a military bulldozer operates in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Majdi Mohammed/AP)
Israel said it will maintain control of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip during the first phase of the ceasefire with Hamas.
A statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Wednesday denied reports that the Western-backed Palestinian Authority would control the crossing.
The truce, now in its fourth day, is supposed to bring calm to war-battered Gaza for at least six weeks and see 33 Hamas-held hostages released in return for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The statement said European Union monitors would supervise the crossing, which will be surrounded by Israeli troops. Israel also will approve the movement of all people and goods.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Around 100 hostages still remain in Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed dead. The rest have been released, rescued, or their bodies were recovered.
Israel’s military campaign has killed over 47,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities but do not say how many of the dead were fighters. Israel says it killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Israeli forces are surrounding a hospital in the West Bank and hundreds of Palestinians are trapped inside, health officials say
JENIN, West Bank — Hundreds of Palestinians were trapped in a hospital by an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank that has killed at least 10 people in two days, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Wednesday.
The Israeli military said its forces were trying to detonate explosive devices planted by militants beneath the road outside the hospital in the city of Jenin, and had told patients and doctors not to exit the hospital during the detonations. Dozens of military bulldozers have carved up tracts of roads in Jenin.
A nurse inside the Jenin Government Hospital said patients were “terrified” as hundreds of people were unable to leave for hours.
On Wednesday afternoon, pregnant women and older adults, one carrying an infant bundled in a blanket against the winter chill, walked past ambulances and armored vehicles away from the hospital and the Jenin refugee camp, as gunfire echoed down the empty streets and Israeli military drones and aircraft buzzed low overhead.
“There’s no medicine, no food, no supplies, nothing,” said Ashram Abu Sroor, shaking his head as he exited the hospital.
Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Israeli forces had begun the large operation in Jenin with the main goal of clearing roadside bombs placed by militants under streets and civilian infrastructure aimed at Israeli soldiers.
Israeli forces have regularly clashed with Palestinian militants in Jenin in recent years, even before the war in Gaza.
Israel says it will keep control of the Rafah crossing with Egypt
JERUSALEM — Israel says it will maintain control of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip during the first phase of the ceasefire with Hamas.
A statement issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Wednesday denied reports that the Palestinian Authority would control the crossing.
It said local Palestinians not affiliated with Hamas who had been vetted by Israeli security would merely stamp passports at the crossing. It noted that, under international agreements, this stamp “is the only way Gazans may leave the Strip in order to enter, or be received in, other countries.”
The statement said Israeli forces would surround the crossing and that Israel must approve the movement of all people and goods through it. It said European Union monitors would supervise the crossing.
Israel captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing last May, forcing it to shut down. Egypt, a key mediator in more than a year of negotiations that led to the ceasefire, has demanded that Palestinians control the Gaza side.
UN says aid is flowing smoothly into Gaza
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Gaza says trucks from the U.N., aid groups, governments and the private sector are arriving and no major looting has been reported — just a few minor incidents.
Nearly 900 trucks of aid entered Gaza on the third day of the ceasefire Tuesday, the United Nations said. That’s significantly higher than the 600 trucks called for in the deal.
Muhannad Hadi, who returned to Jerusalem from Gaza on Tuesday afternoon, told U.N. reporters by video that it was one of the happiest days of his 35-year humanitarian career to see Palestinians in the streets looking ahead with hope, some heading home and some starting to clean up the roads.
In his talks with families at a communal kitchen run by the U.N. World Food Program and elsewhere, he said, they all told him they need humanitarian assistance but want to go home, to work and earn money.
“They don’t like the fact that they have been depending on humanitarian aid,” Hadi said.
Palestinians talked about resuming education for their children and about the need for shelter, blankets and new clothes for women who have been wearing the same clothes for more than a year. He said a shipment of tents is expected in the coming days.