A phone call from President Biden persuaded Egyptian President Al-Sisi to allow food trucks that had been stopped from entering the Rafah crossing by Egypt, because IDF forces have taken over the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, to be rerouted through the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel. Yesterday over 200 loaded trucks entered Gaza from the Kerem Shalom crossing, as well as ca. 150 trucks from the US jetty on the coast of Gaza. |The IDF is providing protection for this process so that the trucks are not being looted and so that US troops do not have to set foot in Gaza.
By the way, Biden asked for no response from Hamas or Gaza for constructing his m$138 pier, and he also failed to get their agreement for it. Since Hamas is anti-American they not only lobbed mortars at the pier, but have stopped and looted trucks leaving the pier loaded with aid. The aid ends up being sold at exorbitant prices on the Gaza black market.
Although some Israeli politicians did say we should starve the Palestinians, they were all talk with no power to affect policy. Only the War Cabinet can make policy and so far Israel has cooperated with all attempts to increase the flow of aid to the civilian population in Gaza. This is contrary to the ICJ allegation that Israel has been preventing food from entering Gaza in order to deliberately starve the civilian population.
About the ICJ ruling, first Israel is not a signatory of the ICJ and it has in principle no jurisdiction over Israel. Second, neither is the US a member of the ICJ convention and some time ago Congress passed a resolution that the US will not accept ICJ jurisdiction over US citizens who are accused of war crimes by the ICJ. Congress also extended this to US allies who are engaged in a war with US support. Also, the ICJ gave Israel a month to respond to its allegations, so meanwhile Israel is continuing its operation in Rafah. Today Hamas fired rockets from Rafah towards Tel Aviv, 8 of which entered Israel, but there were no casualties, one person was hurt by shrapnel.
Apart from the ICJ , the ICC, a completely different organization, has indicted both PM Netanyahu and FM Gallant for possible war crimes. So far nothing has come of these decisions, but several countries have said they will abide by these indictments, making possible travel for the PM and FM problematical.
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