Flee Gaza is practically impossible right now, and that includes the 120 Spaniards who meet right now in the narrow Mediterranean Strip.
The Eretz crossing into Israel, in the north of the territory, is completely closed by the Israeli Army. Your Defense Forces (IDF) They are heavily bombing northern Gaza and deploy tanks and soldiers for an eventual raid. The Rafah crossing with Egypt, in the south, was closed after, this Wednesday, the Israeli Air Force bombed in the vicinity.
The acting Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, “is coming into contact with European counterparts and international organizations to be able to coordinate any possible evacuation as soon as it is possible,” diplomatic sources assure this newspaper.
The same sources consider the exfiltration not feasible at this time and they point out that only a joint community effort can bear fruit. Many of those Palestinians have dual nationality, they say. At the moment there is no information that any of them have died in the bombings. This week, the Foreign Minister confirmed the death of the young Spanish-Israeli Sevillian Maya Villalobos at the hands of Hamas.
In Gaza, at least 1,500 people have already died under Israeli bombs, a third of them children, according to Palestinian authorities.
This Saturday marks one week since the Al Qassam and Al Quds Brigades (armed wing of Hamas and the Islamic Jihadi) attacked the Israeli border area by surprise, and They will kill more than 1,300 men, women and children, according to figures updated this Friday by the Hebrew authorities.
Defense, at the order of Foreign Affairs
The Foreign Ministry refuses for the moment to publicly say how many of the approximately 9,000 Spaniards registered in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories are in Gaza. But this Friday, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, said that there are 120 Spaniards who are in the Strip, reports EFE.
Robles has put the Army available to Foreign to coordinate new evacuations of Spanish citizens who are in Israel, Gaza and nearby countries. He has not ruled out further operations after the two planes chartered this week to Tel Aviv. Defense has evacuated this week on two A330 planes 334 Spaniards and another 95 people of different nationalities but with links to Spain.
“If there finally have to be evacuations in Israel, Gaza or other places, the Armed Forces They are always ready to do it“, he said this Friday. In Defense they are waiting for specific instructions from the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Negotiations for the opening of Rafá
USA negotiates the opening of the border between Gaza and Egypt so that its nationals and those of other countries are allowed to leave the country, according to what sources from the US Government have told the AFP agency. “We have also discussed it with Israel and we will continue talking about it with Egypt. It is important that the Rafah crossing be open so that American citizens and other nationalities who want to leave can leave Gaza,” say the same anonymous sources.
There are three “humanitarian corridors” under discussion at the moment.
One is the entry corridor for humanitarian aid in the Strip. Egypt agrees that food, water or medicine enter the Strip through this passage. The Government of Abdel Fattah El-Sisi assures that it is already sending humanitarian aid flights for Gaza to Al Arish airport in Sinai, very close to the Rafah crossing. The president of the Palestinian National Authority (based in the West Bank and without effective control over Gaza) has asked the US Foreign Minister, Antony Blinken, to establish “humanitarian corridors to Gaza urgently.” Both met this Friday in Jordan.
The second is a humanitarian corridor to evacuate Gazans fleeing the bombs. But Egypt is not willing to host a wave of refugees in its territory. More than 2.2 million people live in Gaza. Cairo, which has been a frequent mediator in previous crises between Israel and the Palestinians, demands that both sides resolve their problems within their borders. Keeping the Palestinian population in the Palestinian territories, El-Sisi assures, is the only way to achieve a Palestinian state.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, met this Friday with the Israeli authorities. According to the statements from the institutions they represent, it is about showing “solidarity with the victims of Hamas terrorist attacks.” But they have also asked for establishment of humanitarian corridors to Gazaaccording to European Parliament sources to Reuters.
The third humanitarian corridor is the aforementioned exit channel for foreigners in the Strip, to which Spaniards who wanted to leave could be welcomed due to the risk of bombings and the ground offensive.
Related news
The leaders of Hamas (an Islamist movement considered a terrorist group by the EU and the United States) have asked the Palestinians let them stay and ignore the Israeli ultimatum to leave the north of the country for the south. At the moment, the movements of people are being limited in the area.
Israel has mobilized 300,000 reservists and warned another 400,000. Battalions of the regular Army, of more than 180,000 soldiers, are being deployed with tanks on the Gaza border, to continue the response to Hamas attacks.