TRANSCRIPT
At street markets across the West Bank, buyers are preparing for Eid al-Fitr. It's known as the festival of breaking the fast, a celebration to mark the end of the Muslim holy month, Ramadan.
But it's different from other years, with fewer stalls and the usual decorations not being hung.
This resident, like others, say there's less joy, as they feel the impact of the war.
“You can see the situation in the city, there are people around but there is not much joyous anticipation for the Eid, people just come to walk around and to fume stress rather than staying at home, and look at the city, it does not look like Eid.”
In the Gazan city of Khan Younis, the Palestine Red Crescent Society released a video showing the damage of the Al-Amal Hospital and its medical equipment.
It follows the withdrawal of Israeli military occupation forces in the area.
For Gaza's biggest hospital, the Al-Shifa hospital recovery efforts are also underway, after the significant Israel military's operation.
Director of Ambulances in the Gaza Strip, Hussein Muhaisen says its been a difficult task.
“We are now exhuming the martyrs who were executed and burying them in the Shifa Medical Complex after the occupation left the complex. A mechanism has been created and we are now extracting all the martyrs who were underground and executed by the Israeli occupation. Our capabilities are very weak, as we are working with one bulldozer. A number of the martyrs, including children and women, were bound and shackled by their hands and were buried in this well-known place in the Al-Shifa Complex. They (the bodies) will be transferred, their families will get to know these martyrs and then they will be buried in known cemeteries in Gaza.”
Israel says the operation has been a strategic success in its ongoing conflict with Hamas militants.
They say it was conducted with precision to avoid civilian casualties among those sheltering within the hospital.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced a date has been set for an Israel invasion of Rafah.
But he is not revealing the actual date of the operation.
“Today, I received a detailed report on the talks in Cairo, we are working all the time to achieve our goals, primarily the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas. This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen - there is a date.”
Rafah is known as Gaza's last refuge for displaced Palestinians.
The United States has opposed the full-scale military invasion of the enclave.
State Department spokesman from the Biden administration, Matthew Miller says it will be deeply harmful to civilians.
“We have made clear to Israel that we think a full-scale military invasion of Rafah would have an enormously harmful effect on those civilians, and that it would ultimately hurt Israel's security. So it's not just a question of Israel presenting a plan to us, we have made clear to them that we think that there is a better way to achieve what is a legitimate goal, which is to degrade and dismantle and defeat the Hamas battalions that still remain in Rafah." ]]
Despite concerns, Mr Miller has also highlighted that more aid has come into Gaza to help with the humanitarian situation.
“Yesterday, 304 aid trucks entered Gaza, the highest number of trucks in any single day since the conflict began. That number represents a significant improvement, but it is important not just that we see the daily number continue to grow, but that it be sustained over time.”
Meanwhile, The United Nations Security Council president has referred the Palestinian Authority's application to become a full member of the world body to the committee.
Malta's UN Ambassador Vanessa Frazier says deliberation has to take place this month [[April ]].
“The committee has to deliberate within the month of April, and we all recognize that any member of the council may decide to present a resolution for membership to be voted at any time, as is the procedure of the council.”
Riyad Mansour is the Permanent Observer to the United Nations for Palestine.
He hopes this will make progress after the Palestinian Authority formally asked for renewed consideration of its 2011 application earlier in April.
“It was sent to the Security Council through the Secretary-General of the U.N. It was a historic moment then and now, that historic moment has been revived again. We sincerely hope after 12 years since we changed our status to an observer state, that the Security Council will elevate itself to implementing the global consensus on the two-state solution by admitting the state of Palestine for full membership.”
Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan says a Palestinian state would be a threat to Israel's national security.
“Granting the Palestinian statehood is not only a blatant violation of the UN Charter, it also violates the fundamental principles that everyone can understand of reaching a solution, a lasting solution, at the negotiating table. There is nothing that perpetuates a conflict more than one side believing that they can force their demands on the other side through a third party. And this is exactly what the U.N.'s discussion to unilaterally grant the Palestinians a state, does. It perpetuates the conflict.”
