3 yıl önce

Egypt accepts Gaza's wounded, urges UN to solve crisis

Three convoys transporting a total of 263 Palestinians cross into Rafah in the restive North Sinai region, sources say. Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry says "concessions must be made in order to achieve peace."

Reuters

A relative stands by Palestinian girl Suzy Eshkuntana, 6, as she lies in bed at a hospital after being pulled from the rubble of a building amidst Israeli air strikes, in Gaza City on May 16, 2021.

Hundreds of wounded Gazans were taken across the Rafah border crossing into Egypt for treatment, medical and border sources said, as Cairo's foreign minister called for "concessions" to end the Israel aggression on Palestine.

Three convoys transporting a total of 263 Palestinians on Sunday crossed into Rafah in the restive North Sinai region, the sources said.

They included people wounded in recent strikes, as well as travellers with serious ailments and students.

Transporting victims via Rafah crossing

Egypt's Red Crescent in North Sinai said on Sunday on its Facebook page that medical emergency teams had been dispatched at the Egyptian side to help transport victims.

Israel imposed a land and sea blockade on Gaza after Hamas assumed control of the coastal strip in 2007.

Rafah is the only passage not controlled by Israel to the outside world for Gaza, a densely populated area of around two million Palestinians, half of whom live in poverty.

Egyptian authorities opened the crossing in February but it remains heavily secured and is usually closed during public holidays, including the Muslim Eid al Fitr holiday, this year running until the end of Sunday in Egypt.

'Concessions must be made'

Addressing the UN Security Council's virtual session on the crisis, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Sunday that "concessions must be made in order to achieve peace".

Shoukry reiterated Cairo's call for an "immediate ceasefire" and urged the Security Council to "live up to its responsibility entrusted to it (by the international community) to solve the current crisis".

Earlier, Egypt's ambassador in Ramallah, Tarek Tayel, discussed with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh Cairo's "tireless efforts... to provide humanitarian support to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip," the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said.

Israeli aggression flares tension

Tensions have been running high in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of the occupied East Jerusalem and at the Al Aqsa Mosque since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as Israeli forces and illegal settlers assaulted Palestinians.

The tensions spread from occupied East Jerusalem to Gaza after Palestinian resistance groups there vowed to retaliate against Israeli assaults on the Al Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah if they were not halted.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed and occupied the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognised by the international community.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies