(May 24, 2024 / JNS)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi agreed to restore the flow of aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during a telephone call with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday.

Egypt halted U.N. aid deliveries into the southern city of Rafah after the Israeli military took control of the Gazan side of the Egypt-Gaza border. In Friday’s call, el-Sisi agreed to let the aid flow through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing near the Egyptian border.

“President Biden welcomed the commitment from President el-Sisi to permit the flow of U.N.-provided humanitarian assistance from Egypt through the Kerem Shalom crossing on a provisional basis for onward distribution throughout Gaza,” the White House stated in its readout of the call. “This will help save lives.”

The Egyptian readout of the call said that the deliveries would consist of “humanitarian aid and fuel” and would continue “temporarily until a legal mechanism is reached to reoperate the Rafah crossing from the Palestinian side.”

  • electric_nan
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    6 months ago

    If it’s going through an Israeli checkpoint on the way, it will not reach Gazans. Guaranteed. Same shit happened with the stupid fucking pier. You cannot rely on the perpetrators of genocide to help ameliorate the genocide! This is nothing more than an attempt to soften Biden’s image in regards to supporting this genocide. Only dopes will fall for it.

      • goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org
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        6 months ago

        small amount of biscuits

        And i knew it wasn’t going to be a lot though the pier but didn’t realize it was this low

        American officials hope the pier at maximum capacity can bring the equivalent of 150 truckloads of aid to Gaza each day. That’s a fraction of the 600 truckloads of food, emergency nutritional treatments and other supplies that USAID says are needed each day to bring people in Gaza back from the start of famine and address the humanitarian crisis brought on by the seven-month-old Israel-Hamas war.

        • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Yes, the US said from the beginning that the pier would not be able to supply Gaza by itself. That’s why resuming supply from Egypt is significant.

          Pre-invasion, only 500 trucks went into Gaza per day. If the US can provide 150, that’s 30% of the pre-invasion total. It doesn’t solve the problem, but it does ameliorate it.

          • jonne@infosec.pub
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            6 months ago

            There’s a lot more need than pre-invasion levels. There was local agriculture in Gaza, functional bakeries, a water pipeline, electricity, etc.

            Now all of those things need to be trucked in instead.

            • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Fair enough. I believe the estimated need is now 600 trucks, so the US can supply up to 25%

      • electric_nan
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        6 months ago

        Did you read the article, or just the headline?

        • goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org
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          6 months ago

          The WFP had warned this week that the U.S. project could fail unless Israeli authorities gave clearances and cooperation for alternate land routes and better security

          Cool cool cool. Totally better than actually getting Israel to let in aid, well done Biden

        • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I read the article. Did you?

          The U.S. Agency for International Development told The Associated Press that a total of 41 trucks loaded with aid from the more than $320 million pier have reached humanitarian organizations in Gaza.

          • electric_nan
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            6 months ago

            “The U.N. World Food Program said Wednesday that it has handed out in Gaza in recent days a “limited number” of high-energy biscuits that arrived from a U.S.-built pier”

            – Ridiculous

            “Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters Tuesday that he did not believe any of the aid from the pier had yet reached people in Gaza. Sullivan said a day later that some aid had been delivered “specifically to the Palestinians who need it.””

            – Sounds like the general was reprimanded after his first comment.

            “American officials hope the pier at maximum capacity can bring the equivalent of 150 truckloads of aid to Gaza each day. That’s a fraction of the 600 truckloads of food, emergency nutritional treatments and other supplies that USAID says are needed each day”

            –Even if this was working at max capacity, which it definitely isn’t, it wouldn’t be nearly enough.

            "The WFP had warned this week that the U.S. project could fail unless Israeli authorities gave clearances and cooperation for alternate land routes and better security.

            Humanitarian officials and the U.S. say the sea route is not a replacement for bringing aid through land crossings, and they have repeatedly called on Israel to allow a steady large flow of trucks through entry points and to ensure aid workers are safe from the Israeli military."

            :/

            • rusticus@lemm.ee
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              6 months ago

              So according to your logic, SOME aid but not enough to cover the COMPLETE need is “ridiculous”.

              Is there any color in your world or is everything monochromatic?

              • electric_nan
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                6 months ago

                What is ridiculous is that a small number of energy biscuits have made it through. I helpfully broke the quotes and my responses to each section out. Read it again with that in mind.

            • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              So even according to your quotes, food is reaching Gazans. As of Thursday, 1.2 million pounds of aid have been delivered to the pier of which two thirds has been distributed to Gazans.

              And even before the pier was built, the US said it could not supply Gaza by itself. The US is trying to ameliorate the problem, not solve it single-handedly. That’s why it’s important that Egypt agreed to open their crossing.

              • electric_nan
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                6 months ago

                Of course the US can’t supply the need itself. Sending some energy biscuits that you hope Israel will allow through, is like offering a band aid to someone with a severed femoral artery. The idea that food aid is the solution to this crisis is itself very stupid, especially when the “lethal aid” keeps flowing to Israel, which they use to bomb refugee camps. You think there’s no pleasing me because I’m not satisfied with the food aid. What I am concerned about is stopping the genocide.

                • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  There are many Gazans who, unlike you, are also concerned about food.

    • steal_your_face
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      6 months ago

      I don’t think there’s Israeli citizens at this checkpoint to psychically block the aid. The IDF might not let it through, though.

    • Maalus@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Yeah, let’s talk when the aid actually reaches the people that need it. And when the trucks comming in will be enough to help all who need it, rather than just a token amount.

        • Maalus@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Uh huh, try again. The truth is he only does token gestures, till they actually work out, you can’t claim “he did it boys”. Not after sending so much leathal aid to Israel.

            • Maalus@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Well, start with not sending weapons to Israel and use the shitload amount of soft power the US has to pressure them to sign a cease fire. Also, could probably be better received if he didn’t repeatedly call himself a zionist and acted accordingly.

              • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                use the shitload amount of soft power the US has to pressure them to sign a cease fire

                Already doing this, at least

                • Maalus@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  So far they parked two carriers right next to Israel to protect them. Where is the soft power being used on Israel?

  • catloaf@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    And is Israel going to allow the aid in, and distribute it to Palestinians?

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Nope. And Sisi knows it. That’s the only reason why that awful dictator agreed to it in the first place.

      He knows it won’t sour his relationship with the fascist apartheid regime next door since it won’t save any Palestinian lives, so it’s pretty much just free brownie points for him and Biden.

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Egypt signed away control of their border as part of their peace agreement with Israel lmao.

    Sisi has no jurisdiction, and even if he did Israel already controls the crossing, meaning he’d have to setup a new one and send military power to keep it up.

    Of course he’s just a slimy [100 adjective long insult] who sucks [another 100 long adjective insult] so there’s a 0% chance that’ll ever happen.

    I’m not even sure why Biden even bothered because everyone already knows this. Unless he thinks he can get Israel to comply somehow.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I’m not even sure why Biden even bothered because everyone already knows this.

      Because a lot of people actually don’t and will likely fall for this brazen PR stunt.

    • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Rafah is the only Gazan border crossing that isn’t controlled by Israel

      Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1982, which saw the Jewish state withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula that it had captured from Egypt in 1967.

      Israel then opened the Rafah crossing, which it controlled until it withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Between then and Hamas’ takeover of Gaza in 2007, the crossing was controlled by the European Union, which worked closely with Egyptian officials.

      Between 2005 and 2007, some 450,000 passengers used the crossing with an average of about 1,500 people per day.

      The Rafah crossing has since been tightly controlled, with limited access and lengthy bureaucratic and security processes required of Palestinians wishing to cross into Egypt.

      Travelers require an exit permit from Hamas and an entry permit from Egypt

      • bamboo@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        Normally this would be correct, but recently Israel took over the Palestine side of the crossing as part of their invasion of Rafah. The first thing they did while taking over was shut down aid deliveries.

        • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          That’s true, I was addressing the claim that Egypt lost control of the crossing after their peace deal with Israel.

          Israel and Egypt currently share control of the crossing. And until recently, Egypt refused to reopen the crossing. So it’s not accurate to imply that Egypt has no say in what happens, or that Biden’s intervention was irrelevant.

      • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        That’s still misleading; the treaty gives Israel the right to veto anything through the crossing even if Egypt owns the crossing.

        • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Both sides can restrict a border crossing. This is true of all border crossings, not just the one with Egypt.

          So for example Canada could block movement of any or all people or goods through its border with the US, if for some reason it wanted to. The US could do the same. The UK could block the EU, and the EU could block the UK. Ukraine has restricted movement of Ukrainian men through its border with Poland, and Poland at some point restricted the movement of Ukrainian grain. And so on.

          • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            That’s a lame attempt to misdirect; Israel is blocking aid through the crossing. I don’t care what Canada or other countries do when the outcome is the same. And not just aid; Americans were blocked from fleeing Gaza including doctors and medical volunteers and it required the US State Department to pressure Israel into letting them out.

              • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                According to JNS, which explicitly says in their donation request at the bottom of the article that they’re trying to defend Israel. No bias there right?

                Israel seized the crossing in violation of the treaty. Israel blocked aid until the ICJ chastised them, then they said they’d allow aid through despite blocking it, now the US pressured Egypt to accept their loss and treaty violations and ship things anyway.

  • pop
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    6 months ago

    “You send aid, we keep funding the genocide. Deal?”

    -Bidet