(In the report from January 9th, the following was corrected in the last paragraph: Baerbock did not meet Habib, meeting with Aoun postponed to Wednesday. New second sentence.)
RAFAH/AL-ARISCH (dpa-AFX) – Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed shock at the humanitarian plight of the people in the Gaza Strip and urgently called for better access to medical and humanitarian aid. “There must now be an urgent response to this medical disaster,” said the Green politician on Tuesday in Al-Arish, Egypt, after a visit to the border with the Gaza Strip. “The hospitals that still exist in Gaza must be able to function,” added the Federal Foreign Minister.
After three months of war, 13 of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are still in operation. Palestinians who cannot be treated there should be able to be taken to places like the hospital in Al-Arisch, said Baerbock. According to the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, 23,000 people have been killed and almost 59,000 injured so far. The hospitals that are still working are completely overwhelmed by the large number of war victims.
3,000 trucks are jammed in front of Rafah
Aid organizations also need better access, said Baerbock. 3,000 trucks fully loaded with relief supplies would pile up in front of Rafah to supply 1.9 million people a few kilometers further in the Gaza Strip. “These trucks can no longer wait for days at this bottleneck here in Rafah. We need a border crossing that can function here around the clock.”
The deputy head of the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA in Gaza, Scott Anderson, spoke of an “incredibly difficult” operation during Baerbock’s visit. Relief supplies are needed from around 300 trucks every day. Baerbock handed over almost ten tons of relief supplies to the Egyptian Red Crescent, including sleeping mats, blankets, children’s sleeping bags and camp beds. A large part of the aid supplies are brought to Gaza via Rafah.
1.5 million people are seeking protection in southern Gaza
Meanwhile, the UN emergency agency OCHA warned that major fighting should not reach the south of the Gaza Strip. In Rafah, where 280,000 people previously lived on the Palestinian side, 1.5 million people are now seeking protection, said Gemma Connell, head of the OCHA team in Gaza, at a meeting with Baerbock. Israel’s army is now attacking targets in the center and south of Gaza in order to, according to its own statements, destroy structures of the Islamist Hamas there. There are already air strikes in Rafah every night, said Connell.
After a meeting with her Egyptian counterpart Samih Schukri, Baerbock called for new humanitarian ceasefires in Cairo, also in order to free the approximately 130 hostages still held by Hamas. “We don’t know how many of them are still alive and fighting for their survival every day,” Baerbock said later. The situation in the Gaza war is developing towards the expulsion of the Palestinians, said Schukri. Two million people in the coastal area would be under siege.
Reminder to Israel’s army: better protect civilians
“The Israeli army must do more to protect civilians in Gaza,” said Baerbock. “The suffering of so many innocent Palestinians cannot continue,” she said. The Prime Ministers of Spain and Belgium, Pedro Sánchez and Alexander De Croo, among others, visited the Rafah border crossing during the war. They had very sharply criticized Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza war was triggered by a terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas and other extremist Palestinian groups on October 7th. Israel responded with massive air strikes and a ground offensive.
In view of the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the sealed-off coastal area and the high number of civilian casualties, Israel has recently come under increasing international criticism.
Talks on Hezbollah planned in Lebanon
On Tuesday evening, Baerbock traveled on to Lebanon. On Wednesday she plans to meet in Beirut with the caretaker Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the commander of the armed forces, General Joseph Aoun. Since the start of the Gaza war, Hezbollah’s confrontations in Lebanon with Israel’s army near the border have increased. Concern is growing that the conflict could develop into a regional conflagration.
## Correction
– last paragraph: Baerbock did not meet Habib, met Aoun
Postponed Wednesday. New second sentence./bk/jot/DP/zb