Cairo: Wounded Gazans were taken on Sunday 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 current conflict with Israel.
Three convoys transporting a total of 263 Palestinians 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.
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 Islamist group Hamas seized 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-ul-Fitr holiday, this year running until the end of Sunday in Egypt.
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".
Meanwhile, China on Sunday voiced regret that the United States was blocking a UN Security Council statement on Israeli-Palestinian violence as it urged greater international efforts to stop the bloodshed.
"Regrettably, simply because of the obstruction of one country, the Security Council hasn’t been able to speak with one voice," Foreign Minister Wang Yi, whose country holds the Council’s rotating presidency, told a virtual session.
In a related development, Muslim advocacy groups say they ‘cannot in good conscience’ join event as US defends Israeli killings in Gaza.
Prominent Muslim advocacy groups in the United States are boycotting a White House event on Sunday to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid-ul-Fitr, saying the Biden administration “aids, abets and justifies” Israeli air strikes on Palestinians in Gaza Strip. US President Joe Biden will host a virtual Eid celebration on Sunday to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramazan.
But as Israeli air raids continue to pummel the Gaza Strip, killing at least 188 Palestinians and injuring hundreds of others, Muslim advocacy groups say the Biden administration’s recent statements have failed to hold Israel accountable for the brutal offensive in Gaza Strip.
“We cannot in good conscience celebrate Eid with the Biden Administration while it literally aids, abets and justifies the Israeli apartheid government’s indiscriminate bombing of innocent men, women and children in Gaza,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in a statement.
“President Biden has the political power and moral authority to stop these injustices. We urge him to stand on the side of the victims and not the victimizer,” Awad said.
CAIR had previously urged Muslims across the US to take part in the virtual celebration, describing it as a “special event”. But criticism of the Biden administration has grown during the past week as the violence in Gaza continues, with progressive US lawmakers, Palestine advocates and rights groups urging the US president to pressure Israel to end its military offensive.
The Israeli military began bombing the Gaza Strip last Monday after Israel’s plan to forcibly displace Palestinian families from occupied East Jerusalem and its attacks on Palestinian worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound spurred widespread protests in al-Quds, the occupied West Bank and inside Israel.
Israeli air raids on Gaza have killed scores, destroyed roads, and flattened buildings, including a tower that housed the offices of Al Jazeera and The Associated Press.
“A strong rebuke of this callous response by the Biden administration is necessary. We will not allow the White House to exploit our holy Eid celebrations for political gain at the expense of the Palestinian people,” the group said.
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