"The northern model cannot be replicated, the consequences must be minimized." This is how two White House officials expressed themselves regarding what they called phase two of Israel's advance in the southern Gaza Strip to end Hamas. From the Biden government, stalked by pressure from the left of its party in favor of the Palestinians, there is daily pressure on Israel to take the greatest care when it comes to protecting civilians and limiting damage to infrastructure if launches that offensive in the south of Gaza, a scenario that can be sensed when the truce ends.
"President Joe Biden's language is very clear," the officials insisted. The purpose is to prevent new displacements of civilians, in an area that already has 1.7 million displaced people, since they would overwhelm humanitarian efforts, senior US officials said.
"When the campaign goes south, it has to occur without large displacements of people. There cannot be the scale that has been seen in the north. That situation would be beyond the capacity of any humanitarian aid," they stressed.
The Israeli offensive in northern Gaza has been devastating: thousands of Palestinians have been killed and large numbers of survivors have been left homeless and forced to flee south due to a relentless bombing campaign and a lack of essential goods such as food, energy and water.
As Israel begins to look to southern Gaza to continue fighting Hamas militants after a pause in fighting to free hostages, U.S. officials said they have been talking to Israelis about taking more care in the south, where now there are about 2 million people.
The message came from President Joe Biden himself. "We have reinforced this in very clear language with the government of Israel: it is very important that when the Israeli campaign moves south it does so in a way that, to the extent possible, is not designed to produce further displacement "The Israeli government is receptive in these conversations that it should run a different campaign," they said.
The military campaign should exclude attacks on certain aid zones, humanitarian aid sites or hospitals in the south, as well as allow water and energy. In the talks, there is specific talk of "humanitarian zones", excluded from military objectives.
"The United States wants the objective to be the elimination of Hamas as a governing force in Gaza and eliminate the threat to Israel," they indicated. "But we have to see how it is done because the situation in the south is very fragile and this could mean a significant displacement of people," they added. The objective would be that "no one would be forced to leave their home, although we know that there will always be movements," they reiterated.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday described the 48-hour extension of the truce between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants as "a glimmer of hope and humanity," but warned it was not enough time to meet needs. of aid from the Gaza Strip.
US officials said Washington would like the humanitarian pause to be extended as long as possible. The military pause has shown that, in addition to facilitating the release of hostages, it has facilitated the entry of trucks exponentially.
The United States announced this Tuesday the sending of three military planes to the Egyptian Al Arish airport, located about 40 kilometers from the Gaza Strip, with aid for the Palestinian enclave. The planes are loaded with winter clothing, medical supplies and food, including containers with prepared meals for children, senior US officials told reporters. The planes are expected to land in Al Arish this Tuesday in an operation that has been coordinated with the United Nations, according to the aforementioned sources.
Officials reported that aid deliveries to Gaza were currently being made at about 240 trucks per day, but this was not enough to meet needs. In his view, the effort would have to resort to commercial contracts to achieve deliveries of up to 400 trucks per day and the US side had been discussing this with Israel.
"To obtain that volume of assistance, inspection procedures will need to be increased and improved and commercial contracts within Gaza will need to be used to receive trucks arriving from Egypt," the first official said. "We hope that after this pause is over it can be phase two of the humanitarian program," he said.
