While the lead
stories in most Portuguese national newspapers lately have been on the
worsening conflict in the Middle East, the Portuguese Foreign Minister Joao
Gomes Cravinho has stressed that the European Union must keep an eye on the war
in Ukraine lest President Vladimir Putin becomes “a winner of the crisis in
Gaza.”
This comes as
United States President Joe Biden’s administration is fully supporting Israel’s
attempt to annihilate Hamas, which the U.S. and European nations have branded a
“terrorist” organisation. Russia, however, is at least vocally siding with Hamas while continuing it’s killing of civilians in Ukraine.
Washington has
vehemently criticised Russia for indiscriminate attacks on Ukraine, but critics
say it has expressed little about similar suffering in Gaza. As a headline in
the New York Times put it;
“Developing World Sees Double Standard in West’s Actions in Gaza and Ukraine.”
The U.S. has
reportedly advised Israel to delay a Gaza invasion, yet Israeli soldiers have
already carried out limited ground incursions and there is no doubt that they
are fully prepared and determined to carry out a full-scale invasion.
Israel has been
bombing and killing civilians in the south as well as the north of Gaza after telling
the northern population to go south for safety. Nowhere is now safe and many
citizens are returning to their homes in the north despite the relentless
bombing there.
Nearly half of
the population of Gaza are under the age of 18. The United Nations estimates
that about 50,000 women in Gaza’s total population of 2.3 million are pregnant.
The psychological as well as physical impact must be truly dreadful.
Many countries
on both side of the Israel – Gaza divide are warning that without restraint the
conflict could quickly spiral out of control and spread across the region.
Pro-Hamas militants
in Lebanon have started exchanging rocket attacks with Israel to the
south. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu has warned that it will meet further attacks from Lebanon with
unimaginable devastation.
Iran has warned
that more Israeli hostility will make wider Palestinian military assaults
inevitable.
Russia entered the fray by proposing that the United
Nations Security Council adopt a motion for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
The text did not include any mention of the Hamas extremists. It was vetoed by
Western members of the council.
Vladimir Putin met with China’s Xi Jinping, but neither
condemned Hamas. They said there was no justification for Israel’s blockade of
essential supplies or planned invasion of Gaza.
During a visit to the border crossing between Egypt
and the Gaza Strip, Antonio Guterres appealed for the delivery of as much
humanitarian aid to the entrapped and homeless Gaza civilians as soon as
possible. Some truckloads have started
entering the only possible route, but it is not nearly enough. The UN says more
than 100 truckloads of the food, water, fuel and medicines Israel has been
blocking are needed daily.
Fuel is about to run out in Gaza as Israel continues to block it fearing it will get into the hands of Hamas who started this escalating conflict.
A few of the more than 200 hostages taken from
Israel to Gaza by Hamas fighters during their October 7 attack have been
released. One elderly Israeli woman said she was beaten while being abducted,
but treated well and given medical treatment during her two weeks in captivity.
The United Nations secretary-general and former
Portuguese prime minister’s calls for peace are falling on deaf ears. He has noted
that while the October 7 attack was unexpected, it was but another example of
the division that has long existed between Israelis and Palestinians.
“The most recent violence does not come in a vacuum,
but grows out of a long-standing conflict, with a 50-year long occupation and
no political end in sight,” he said.
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