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ISRAEL

A UN Vote That Will Live in Infamy Peter O’Brien

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/israel/2024/05/a-un-vote-that-will-live-in-infamy/

On the 7th of October last year, the terrorist group Hamas, which rules in Gaza and purports to represent the state of “Palestine”, committed the most foul attack upon Jewish people since the Holocaust.  Within days, that atrocity was celebrated all over the world, including in Australia.  Polls have shown the majority of Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank supported that action by Hamas, which is still the nominal government in Gaza. Hamas has vowed to repeat the actions of October 7 as often as is necessary to achieve their aim of eliminating Israel. Does anyone believe that if an election were held in Gaza today, even under, say, UN supervision, Hamas would not win?

Israel is in the middle of defending itself against this future. Australia has now voted in favour of granting Palestine, that non-existent nation, UN membership. In God’s name, what could have convinced the Albanese government that this is the right time to muddy the waters on this vexed question and signal that our support for Israel’s right to exist is less than 100 per cent?  To signal to Hamas that they are winning the propaganda war? To signal Hamas to hang in there, we’ve got your back?

Oh wait, I’m guessing Jason Clare and Tony Burke, inter alia, might have something to do with this appalling decision. The mealy-mouthed defence of this move, i.e., that it is in furtherance of a two-state solution, totally ignores the fact that Israel has offered a two-state solution, on generous terms, on at least three occasions and been rebuffed. From The Weekend Australian:

Australia’s ambassador to the United Nations James Larsen said Canberra had been “frustrated” by a “lack of progress” and wanted to signal “unwavering support for the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security within recognised borders”.

So, in order to boost the chance of a two-state solution, our government has supported granting full UN membership to a non-existent state – an entity that does not possess the pre-requisites for nation status – that, under its current governance, repudiates that very same two-state solution.  Regardless of the status of Palestine, I would have thought a non-negotiable pre-condition would be that all its neighbours unconditionally support Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself to the maximum extent required.  

UN Halves Its Estimate of Women and Children Killed in Gaza

https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2024/05/11/un-halves-its-estimate-of-women-and-children-killed-in-gaza/

The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revised its child fatality figure from the Gaza war sharply downward, reporting more than 14,500 deaths on May 6 but then 7,797 on May 8. OCHA also revised downward its figure for women fatalities from more than 9,500 deaths to 4,959 deaths. The Jerusalem Post first reported the changes on May 11.

The UN attributed its original, higher figures to the Hamas-controlled Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza, whose figures OCHA has cited continually for the past two months. The UN gave no source for the lower figures in its May 8 update, but the figures precisely match those in a May 2 report from a different Hamas-controlled organization, the Gaza Ministry of Health.

“This change may signal that the UN has finally recognized the lack of evidence behind Hamas’s original claims that more than 14,000 children and 9,000 women have been killed in Gaza. If so, the UN should state clearly that it has lost confidence in sources whose credibility it has affirmed for months. While this change may only reflect the conclusion of one UN office out of the many operating in Gaza, it is a clear step forward.” — David Adesnik, FDD Senior Fellow and Director of Research

Chamberlain and Biden: Appeasement Then and Now Are we going to stand with the heirs of the Nazis, or with an embattled democratic ally? by Shmuel Klatzkin

https://spectator.org/chamberlain-and-biden-appeasement-then-and-now/

Holocaust Day was marked by solemn remembrances in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world. It was marked in the U.S., as has been customary, by a presidential address, where Biden said nothing that would garner more than perfunctory notice.

Turns out that that was by design. For Biden had already approved a decision that gives cheer to the shade of Hitler and all his modern wanna-be-s — embargoing any arms to Israel that would allow them to keep Hamas from surviving intact and reasserting its plan for death to Israel.

What is different between now and 1938 is just this — Israel is not going to slink away to its dismemberment.

Old Joe’s cowardice extends even to speaking plainly to his own people.

Let’s put his cowardice in perspective by looking at what is often held up as the gold standard for foolishness and fecklessness, the betrayal of the cause of freedom in the leadup to World War II by the appeasers.

By 1938, Hitler had already consolidated his control over Germany. This included freeing himself from the bonds of the treaty which had ended the First World War, with all its limitations on German rearmament and it prohibition of militarizing the German territory west of the Rhine River. As the year progressed, his plans progressed further as he raped an Austria whose people seemed — in a huge demonstration in Vienna — to be stimulated to ecstasy by Hitler’s attentions.

The Betrayal of Israel by the US Administration Is Almost Complete by Guy Millière

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20636/betrayal-of-israel

The Biden administration does not appear ever to have issued the slightest threat, warning or ultimatum to the authors of the war: Hamas, Iran or Qatar.

US Senator Chuck Schumer, after declaring himself a friend and defender of Israel, suggested overthrowing Israel’s democratically elected prime minister, and — as if Israel, and not America, were within his jurisdiction — called for new elections.

Meanwhile in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where anti-government demonstrations began again, one of their leaders, Ami Dror, revealed on social media that the demonstrations and riots are part of a plan by the Biden administration to bring down the Netanyahu government…. The US State Department has, for more than a year, been providing financial support for protests hostile to the Netanyahu government.

Biden, it seems, is frustrated that Netanyahu is objecting to humanitarian aid — which basically resupplies Hamas. Hamas, Israel’s argument goes, released hostages only after unremitting pressure. Relieving that pressure by backing Hamas makes the probability of seeing any more hostages released less likely. Biden is also reportedly frustrated that Netanyahu, for some inexplicable reason, objects to the creation of a terrorist Palestinian state next door.

One cannot leave aside that the Biden administration, through ignoring sanctions on Iranian oil, has allowed the Iran’s regime to earn up to an estimated $100 billion… Without those funds, the massacre of October 7 would not have been possible, Hezbollah would not have been able to fire so many missiles into Israel from Lebanon, and Iran itself would not have been able to launch more than 300 drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in April, and to attack US troops more than 150 times on, just since October 7, 2023 — evidently in an attempt to drive the US out of the Middle East.

The Biden administration, it seems, does not want a definitive end of the conflict — as with Ukraine as well — especially if the end would entail the defeat of Hamas or Russia. Hamas is a protégé of Qatar and Iran, the world’s two leading state sponsors of terrorism. The Biden administration has been rewarding them — Iran with money and Qatar with renewing its protection by Al-Udeid Air Base, headquarters of America’s CENTCOM, as well as controlling the new terror pier the US has built in Gaza At the same time, the Biden administration is falsely accusing Israel of violating human rights.

The Biden administration may even be complicit in the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that might be issued by the International Criminal Court – possibly as a way to dispense with him.

The mullahs are, in effect, using their proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and so on — as their “human shields”.

The Biden administration has placed the existence of Israel in danger to protect Biden from the dangerous voters of Michigan.

Worse, with the Biden administration now having come down squarely against Israel and on the side of Iran, Qatar and Hamas, they have to feel no inclination to agree to anything. Why should they? Iran’s mullahs have a new proxy, the United States, backing their terrorism for them.

Even worse, at almost the same time as the US told Israel it was withholding arms shipments that Congress had already approved (a move for which Democrats tried to impeach then President Donald Trump), the Biden administration waived sanctions for arms purchases by Lebanon, Qatar and Iraq — countries that host groups working to destroy Israel.

Worst of all, if you are Ukraine, Taiwan, China, Russia, Japan – just about any US ally or foe — you probably cannot avoid thinking something like: We have watched the supposedly mighty US surrender Afghanistan, its ally of 20 years, to a bunch of terrorists, the Taliban. Now we are watching the US surrender its closest ally in the Middle East, Israel, the only democracy there, to terrorists: to Hezbollah in Lebanon with 150,000 rockets and missiles pointed at Israel, and to Hamas in Gaza by sending “humanitarian aid,” that will used by terrorists.

Where are any prosecutions or sanctions by the UN and international courts for war crimes and human rights violations on countries such as Qatar (here and here), China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Nigeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Yemen and Sudan?

Currently, the Biden administration appears to want three things: Netanyahu OUT – reportedly to be replaced by a puppet who will do whatever the US tells him; a terrorist Palestinian state IN, and to preserve Iran and Qatar’s client, the terrorist group, Hamas. So far, all the pressure from Washington has been on Israel, none at all on Hamas or on its patrons, Qatar and Iran. The fighting could indeed stop tomorrow if either of them or the US seriously ordered Hamas to stop fighting and immediately return the 132 remaining hostages.

Did the Biden administration even ask?

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com

Israel’s 76th birthday is tomorrow May 13th, beginning at sundown and ending on sundown on Tuesday May 14th. 76 years of wars, terror, victim of libels, bias and outright anti-Semitism. But, Israel is also a democratic survivor and purveyor of outsize research and development of medicine and technology that enrich the life and aspirations of billions on every single continent in the world even during wartime.

To his enormous credit, Michael Ordman works prodigiously to catalog Israel’s positive contributions to the world. Happy Birthday Amazing Israel!!!!!rsk

POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR
 
Remarkable Resilience. This video describes how Israel’s Ben Gurion University responded after the devastating events of Oct 7.  BGU and its students are helping the Negev recover and rebuild. From finance to students in the reserves and evacuees, to medical gear, clinics, and many vital cutting-edge innovations.
https://americansforbgu.org/video/rr4-recording/
 
Picking fruit on Gaza border farms. Before Oct 7, farms near the Gaza border supplied 70 percent of Israel’s fresh produce as well as produce for export. Lack of staff threatens closure of the farms, but volunteers from Israel and overseas has ensured their survival. Grapefruit and clementines are two of the crops being harvested.
https://www.israel21c.org/volunteering-on-israeli-farms-devastated-on-october-7/
https://www.israel21c.org/how-you-can-volunteer-in-israel-during-the-war/
 
 
ISRAEL’S  MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
US approval for retinal imaging. The US FDA has approved the fully autonomous AI from Israel’s AEYE Health (see here previously) that diagnoses referable diabetic retinopathy from retinal images obtained by a handheld camera. Portable screening addresses the leading cause of blindness in the global working population.
https://www.ourcrowd.com/startup-news/fda-clears-first-fully-autonomous-ai-for-portable-diabetic-retinopathy-screening
 
How cancer manipulates the immune system. Researchers at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University are the first to analyze biopsies to discover how cancer cells prevent being destroyed by the immune system. As each patient is different, the results will help scientists develop personalized strategies for destroying tumors.
https://www.biu.ac.il/en/article/580703   https://www.newswise.com/articles/in-a-first-researchers-generate-a-direct-measurement-of-the-interaction-between-immune-cells-and-cancer-cells-from-a-patient-s-biopsy
 
The world’s 10th best healthcare. Israel was ranked tenth in the latest edition of the CEOWORLD magazine Health Care Index. 110 countries were surveyed for infrastructure; professionals (doctors, nursing staff, and others); competencies; cost per capita; quality medicine availability, and government readiness.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/technology-science/artc-israel-ranks-10th-best-health-care-system-in-2024-review  https://ceoworld.biz/2024/04/02/countries-with-the-best-health-care-systems-2024/
 
Improving the use of Operating Rooms. Israel’s Opmed.ai has developed an AI optimization platform for healthcare, starting with Operating Rooms. An empty OR carries a cost of $1,000 for each unused hour. Opmed.ai is already used in the US and Israel and is working with leading Health Systems such as Mayo Clinic.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/r1s5ss8mc  https://www.opmed.ai/
 
Integrated cancer research center. The Technion’s Rappaport Cancer Research Center under construction (see here previously) will house interdisciplinary researchers, computer scientists, doctors, data analysts, biotechnologists, chemical engineers, and more, working to develop treatments via discovery and education.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq_AKCixxzw   https://rticc.net.technion.ac.il/
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-782519
 
A new hospital for Beersheva. The Israeli has approved the establishment of a second hospital in the Negev city of Beersheva, The Peres Medical Center is expected to open in 2028 with 600 beds. It will reduce the strain on Beershava’s Soroka Medical Center. It will be operated by the Sheba Medical Center.
https://www.jns.org/israeli-cabinet-green-lights-new-hospital-for-beersheva/
 
A new strategy for treating multiple myeloma. Israel’s UB-Therapeutics is developing a novel therapy for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Its proteasome degradation inhibitor is a cyclic peptide that directly targets the degradation pathway of the proteasome – overcoming cancer’s resistance to existing proteasome inhibitors.
https://ats.org/our-impact/fighting-cancer-drug-resistance/  https://ngt-healthcare2.com/ub-therapeutics/   https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hyx7duwi2
 
Using plant cells to improve health. (TYAIFL) Israel’s BioHarvest Sciences (see here previously) is building an 80,000 square foot campus in Yavne, Israel to house all R&D functions and manufacturing facilities. BioHarvest uses plants to transform the medical, cosmetic, and nutrition industries.
https://bioharvest.com/bioharvest-sciences-announces-new-campus-for-botanical-synthesis-cdmo-and-expansion-of-manufacturing-capacity/
 
Combining software and medicine. Israel’s Remepy is developing tailored therapeutic software for mobile applications. It aims to unlock and trigger brain functions that modulate the immune system and enhance traditional medication. The hybrid digital and physical therapy should optimize the effectiveness of treatments.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-startup-to-pioneer-hybrid-app-drug-combinations-for-tailored-treatment/
https://www.remepy.com/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyZ-vCIKPIQ
 
Using AI & RNA to deliver therapies. Mana.bio (see here previously) presented to the delegates of Technion UK’s tour of Israel. CEO and co-founder Yogev Debbi explained Mana’s drug delivery development, exactly 7 months after moving to its new premises on Oct 8 when 25% of their staff started IDF reserve duty.
https://technionuk.org/trip-album/#manabio0524  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBbEzqwlIGY

Biden’s unforgivable betrayal of Israel In warning Israel to hold off from Rafah, the White House has abandoned the fight against Hamas. Brendan O’Neill

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/09/bidens-unforgivable-betrayal-of-israel/

Imagine if, in 2017, the world told the Kurds to hold off from attacking Raqqa. Imagine if, following their valiant liberation of 2,000 square miles of Syrian territory from the barbaric diktat of the Islamic State, the Kurdish-led forces were told to down arms. To leave Raqqa be. To leave intact the capital of the cruellest pseudo-state the modern world has known. We would have looked upon such a request as lunacy. We might even have considered it an essentially pro-ISIS position. After all, the flipside of telling the enemies of ISIS to cease fire is that ISIS would gain the breathing space to regroup, rearm and revisit its apocalyptic sadism on the people of Syria and beyond.

Well, just such an unhinged demand is being made right now, though of Israel, not the Kurds. From the White House to those whiffy tents on campus lawns, from the leader pages of the liberal press to the Israelophobic pulpits of social media, the cry goes out: don’t attack Rafah. If Israeli forces launch an invasion of that southern Gazan city, in pursuit of Hamas, it will be a bloodbath, the posing peaceniks cry. It would be ‘genocide in action’, insists former Corbynite bigwig John McDonnell. If you do it, President Biden warns Israel, we will stop providing you with certain weapons. In short: leave Rafah be. Which means leave Hamas be. Leave in peace the army of anti-Semites that butchered a thousand of your people – this, fundamentally, is the request being made of the Jewish State by the self-righteous of the Earth.

We need to talk about the cravenness, the outright iniquity, of the Western world’s lofty insistence that Israel back off from Rafah. It is presented to us as a ‘pro-peace’ position, underpinned by a pure urge to save life. But it could just as easily be seen as the antithesis of peace, as a position likely to benefit and even fortify the army of violent bigots that started this war and who seem hell-bent on continuing it. We know that huge numbers of Hamas militants have decamped to Rafah. We know they’re firing rockets from Rafah. We know some of these deadly devices have killed IDF soldiers while others have fallen on Israeli towns, with the intent of slaughtering the Jews who live there. In such circumstances, the cry ‘Hands off Rafah!’ is really a demand that Israel throw its own hands in the air and submit to the violent persecutions of its medieval foe.

Watchdog: UNRWA Staff Stealing and Selling Gaza Aid for Profit By Eric Lendrum

https://amgreatness.com/2024/05/10/watchdog-unrwa-staff-stealing-and-selling-gaza-aid-for-profit/

A watchdog group has claimed that employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) have been actively stealing and selling aid for profit that was meant for use in Gaza.

As Fox News reports, the claim was made on Wednesday by UN Watch, a non-governmental organization (NGO) operating out of Geneva, Switzerland. The group pointed to multiple reports by Palestinian witnesses in a UNRWA chatroom, all of whom claimed that the organization’s staff members are stealing aid meant for civilian use and have been selling it. The witnesses also claim that anyone who tries to report these crimes face retaliation from UNRWA.

UN Watch’s report also accuses UNRWA Commissioner-General Philipe Lazzarini of “turning a blind eye” to corruption in his ranks. Lazzarini had recently demanded that countries begin sending more direct cash payments to Gaza rather than aid, claiming that although “there is more food available, it still does not mean that the food is accessible.”

UNRWA has also been accused of anti-Israel sentiment and voicing support for Hamas, the Islamic terrorist organization which carried out the October 7th attack against Israel last year, which led to the deaths of over 1,400 Israeli citizens. The aforementioned UNRWA chatroom is run by former UNRWA employee Haitham al-Sayyed, who was fired in 2016 after he called out the UNRWA for hiding an agency-sponsored map that denied Israel’s existence.

“While Haitham al-Sayyed was supposedly fired from UNRWA, he is still considered by many in the chat rooms as an important figure in the organization who holds sway with the senior administration,” said UN Watch. The report went on to claim that some employees, “frustrated by inaction and even complicity of senior staff in these thefts,” have confessed to al-Sayyed “in the hope that he can get UNRWA’s top officials to listen.”

One UNRWA employee, Mohammed Musa al-Sawalhi, took to the chatroom on February 20th to give his account of several UNRWA employees stealing aid and stashing it in their own houses.

“Eighty percent of employees in the shelters have no morals or dignity,” said al-Sawalhi, who said that the family of one director was captured stealing aid on video.

In response to the bombshell accusations, a spokesman for UNRWA released a statement saying that the group saw this report and are looking at what are very serious claims. We will provide an update when and if we have more information.”

I witnessed Israel choosing life as it fights against a ‘death cult’ By Douglas Murray

https://nypost.com/2024/05/08/opinion/i-witnessed-israel-choosing-life-as-it-fights-against-a-death-cult/

Adapted from Douglas Murray‘s speech Monday as The Post columnist accepted the Manhattan Institute’s Alexander Hamilton Award.

“I want to dedicate my acceptance of this award to the people of Israel who in the face of death, choose life.”

I’ve never seen as much of the best and the worst of humankind as I have in the past six months in Israel and Gaza.

I was here in New York on the 7th of October, and on the 8th, I went down to Times Square.

And there were these men and women, waving signs, celebrating the massacre.

They were holding these signs in Times Square, “by any means necessary.”

At a time when we already knew what those means included.

I thought I had to get to Israel as soon as I could, that we were going to see a kind of Holocaust denialism in real time, and therefore I should see with my own eyes everything that had happened.

In Israel, I joined the pathologists in the morgues of Tel Aviv as they were trying to identify the dead.

An unbelievable task, which they do with extraordinary delicacy and religiosity.

I had the great opportunity to witness firsthand Israel’s response, because unlike some countries today, Israel doesn’t just sit back with equanimity when it’s attacked.

Some of the world would like it to do so.

Defending Freedom: A Tribute to the Warriors of Israel by Nils A. Haug

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20625/warriors-of-israel-defending-freedom

These assaults are not only aimed at Israel and its inhabitants but, ultimately, at the West.

Adversaries of the West — whether religious fundamentalists or authoritarian states such as China, Russia, and Iran and its allies — appear intent upon imposing a new totalitarian world order. To do so, they seek destruction of the two main countries standing in their way: United States of America and Israel, the global champions of democracy, freedom, Western values, and human rights.

Regrettably, with freedom often comes the need to protect it, at times by force, from those who would take it away. Sometimes, this requires measures open to criticism by those who may have a different goal….

“Therefore, having judged that to be happy means to be free, and to be free means to be brave, we do not shy away from the risks of war.” — Pericles, funeral oration, 432 BCE.

Israel… is fighting for the values of civilization opposing terrorist barbarism so that the rest of us in the West will not have to. We should be sending whatever they need to end the terrorism, not withholding precision-guided weapons — especially, as we sanctimoniously claim, if we do not want to harm civilians.

“I have faith in the Jewish people. Let Israel be given a chance, let hatred and danger be removed from her horizons, and there will be peace in and around the Holy Land.” – Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, December 10, 1986.

As people of peace, the warriors and all citizens of Israel long for such a time with all their hearts, but first there are battles to be won.

The Real Reason Hamas and Egypt Oppose Israel’s Control of Rafah, the Only Border Out of Gaza by Bassam Tawil *****

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20624/israel-gaza-egypt-border-rafah

Hamas and Egypt were quick to issue statements denouncing the capture of the Rafah border crossing, claiming that the move would “threaten” the lives of the Palestinians and hinder the entry of humanitarian and relief aid into the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptians and Hamas have good reason to be angry with the presence of the IDF at the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing. For several years, Palestinians who wanted to exit the Gaza Strip via the terminal have alleged that they had to bribe Hamas and officials. Hamas and Egypt are now afraid of losing the Palestinian milk-cow.

“It is our right to travel without bribes and without corruption. We are living under a [Hamas] dictatorship.” Abu Amr was later arrested by Hamas security officers, who confiscated her mobile phone and ordered her to delete the Facebook post. — Noha Abu Amr, Palestinian journalist, 24.ae, January 24, 2024

[A] Palestinian man in the US [said] he paid $9,000 to get his wife and children on the list. On the day of travel, he was told his children’s names were not listed and he would have to pay an extra $3,000. He said the brokers were “trying to trade in the blood of Gazans”.

[T]he company [Hala Consulting and Tourism Services] owned by an influential Egyptian businessman and ally of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi] is estimated to have made a minimum of $118 million from desperate Palestinians trying to leave the Gaza Strip. “By the end of this year, if the April average continues, the company may earn well over half a billion dollars from the so-called VIP list of people Hala is transferring across the Gaza-Egypt border. ” — Middle East Eye, May 1, 2024.

An international charity [that does not want to be named] with extensive experience in providing emergency aid in wars…is also being forced to pay $5,000 per truck to a company linked to Egypt’s General Intelligence Service (GIS) to get aid into the Gaza Strip. — Middle East Eye, January 30, 2024.

The Palestinians actually owe Israel a huge debt of gratitude for finally driving Hamas out of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing.

Egypt and Hamas are, it seems, indifferent to the pain endured by the Palestinians they are effectively imprisoning. All that matters to them is making more money off anyone desperate to leave the Gaza Strip.

On May 6, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) captured the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, drawing condemnations from the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group and Egypt.

The IDF said it had “intelligence that terrorists were using the border crossing for terror purposes.” A day earlier, Hamas terrorists fired rockets from near the Rafah terminal toward the Kerem Shalom area (near the Israel-Gaza border), killing four Israeli soldiers and wounding several others.

In response to the Israeli military operation, Hamas and Egypt were quick to issue statements denouncing the capture of the Rafah border crossing, claiming that the move would “threaten” the lives of the Palestinians and hinder the entry of humanitarian and relief aid into the Gaza Strip.

“Egypt condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli military operations in the Palestinian city of Rafah, and the resulting Israeli control over the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing,” read a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.