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U.S. President Joe Biden has demanded the protection of Gaza's hospitals, calling on Israeli forces to carry out "less intrusive actions" in their vicinity. The US president's remarks come after the Israeli army and tanks arrived at the gates of the Strip's main hospital, Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. According to Israeli forces, the basement of the building is the Hamas command center. The health complex, the most important in the territory, has collapsed. According to Ashraf Al Qidra, a spokesman for Gaza's Health Ministry, at least 32 people — three of them premature babies — have died in hospital due to a lack of fuel and power in the past three days. One of the surgeons working at the complex has assured that the medical team of the health complex will agree to leave the hospital if "the evacuation of patients is guaranteed". The death toll in Gaza has risen to 11,240, of whom 4,630 are children. Meanwhile, a group of 40 Spaniards, including 22 minors, have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, which links the Palestinian enclave with Egypt, according to diplomatic sources. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has assured that this Tuesday another 80 Spanish-Palestinians will be evacuated.
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Albares assures that the first group of Spaniards is crossing the Rafah pass
The acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, this Monday in Brussels.Video: EFE
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El País
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Tries to Contain Differences Within the Department Over Gaza War
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday addressed the criticism that has taken place within his Department about the policy that the Biden administration has assumed regarding the war between Israel and Hamas, following the public and private positions of hundreds of its employees calling for a ceasefire.
Cables criticizing the Biden administration's policy — with full support for Israel — have been submitted to the department's internal dissent channel, created during the Vietnam War, which allows workers to raise concerns about the policy anonymously with the Secretary of State, according to sources familiar with the matter. quoted by the Reuters news agency.
Criticism has focused on President Biden's unwavering support for Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, which killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, the deadliest attack in the country's history.
In response, Israel has launched a relentless military campaign in Gaza, killing more than 11,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, unleashing the bloodiest chapter in years of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
ACT.14 NOV 2023 - 04:33
El País
32 Brazilians who were trapped in Gaza arrive in Brazil
A group of 32 people, including Brazilians and relatives, arrived in Brazil on Monday after Egyptian authorities allowed them to leave the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday and managed to board a boat from Cairo.
The Brazilian Air Force plane carrying the group made a technical stopover in Recife (northeast), already in Brazilian territory, at 20:30 p.m. (23:30 GMT on Tuesday) and then continued the flight to Brasilia, the Brazilian capital.
According to the state-run news service Agencia Brasil, the group, which includes 17 children, is expected to be received by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the Brasilia Military Air Base. In addition to the minors, the group includes nine women and six men and by nationality 22 are Brazilians, seven naturalized Palestinians and three family members of Palestinian nationality. In Brasilia, the group will stay for at least two days at the Air Base's military transit hotel and people will receive psychological support, medical care and vaccination. Afterwards, several of the members of the group will go to other cities in Brazil, where they will stay with relatives, and others will be transferred to a shelter specialized in the reception of refugees in the interior of the state of São Paulo.
The Brazilian government had been trying to evacuate its citizens from the Palestinian territory for more than three weeks, and both the president and Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira had spoken by phone several times with the leaders of Egypt and Israel. Since the beginning of the conflict caused by the attack by the armed wing of the Hamas group on Israeli territory on October 7, Brazil had already repatriated 1,462 Brazilians, eleven Palestinians, three Bolivians and one Jordanian, in addition to 53 pets, on nine flights.
Lula has condemned Hamas' terrorist attacks against Israel, but has also lamented the thousands of civilian deaths caused by Israeli bombardments and called for a ceasefire to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. (Image: EFE)
ACT.14 NOV 2023 - 02:34
El País
U.N. Says Fuel Shortage Impacts Aid Delivery in Gaza
The fuel crisis in Gaza is so dramatic that truckloads of aid arriving through the Rafah crossing from Egypt will not be unloaded from Tuesday because there is no fuel for forklifts or vehicles delivering the food, water and medicine that are being taken to those in desperate need. says a senior UN humanitarian official.
Andrea De Domenico, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said that "lives in Gaza are hanging in the balance due to the hemorrhaging of fuel and medical supplies." And he said that since Israeli troops arrived in the center of Gaza City five days ago, it has been too dangerous for the U.N. to coordinate any operation in the north.
De Domenico told a news conference with U.N. correspondents from East Jerusalem that heavy fighting over the weekend around Shifa hospital, Gaza City's largest, damaged critical infrastructure, including water tanks, oxygen stations and the cardiovascular center in the maternity ward. Three nurses were reported dead, he said. (AP)
ACT.14 NOV 2023 - 02:20
El País
Palestinian-American lawmaker Rashida Tlaib calls for "immediate" ceasefire in Gaza
Palestinian-born U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on Monday called for Israel's "immediate" ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to save lives and said that "most Americans want a ceasefire."
"Polls show that a majority of Americans, more than 65 percent of Americans, including 80 percent of them Democrats, want a ceasefire," she said at a news conference in Washington.
Tlaib, the first Palestinian lawmaker to be elected to Congress, was censured by the lower house for her comments on Israel's war in the Gaza Strip. The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Nov. 7 to censure the legislator, in a measure that obtained 188 votes against and 234 in favor, including the support of 22 congressmen from the Democratic Party, to which Tlaib belongs.
"We are calling for an end to violence, not an end to violence. The humanitarian pause is not enough. President Biden, I hope you're listening," said Tlaib, a Democratic congresswoman from Detroit.
Last October, a group of U.S. Democratic congressmen introduced a resolution calling on Joe Biden's administration to call for a ceasefire and facilitate de-escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The text is promoted by legislators Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib, André Carson, Summer Lee and Delia Ramirez, from the left wing of the Democratic Party.
In the presence of other lawmakers and a group of rabbis wearing a white T-shirt with the slogan "Rabbis for a ceasefire," Tlaib said Monday that "the path to peace must include addressing the root causes of our conflict and ending the blockade and occupation."
"There is nothing humanitarian about giving innocent civilians a four-hour break before being bombed. We are calling for an end to violence, not an end to violence. The humanitarian pause is not enough. We will not be intimidated, we will not be silenced," he said.
"I know that the extremist government of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is now saying that Israeli forces would assume responsibility for Gaza's security for an indefinite period of time. That's not a question of security," he said. The lawmaker added that "perpetuating an illegal occupation will not lead to a just and lasting peace." The forced displacement, the displacement of Palestinians, began, as everyone knows, 75 years ago. The occupation has been ongoing for more than 56 years," he added.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also called for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza area and thanked the Jewish Voice for Peace organization for its support, which, she said, "has a legitimate role in this dialogue." Thank you to our rabbis who have joined us. Thank you to Rep. Rashida, who has presented herself as the only Palestinian-American woman in U.S. history, and has been censured for standing up for her humanity. We will not let that discourage us," Ocasio-Cortez said. (Image: EFE)
ACT.14 NOV 2023 - 01:55