Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu: “We do not want to occupy or govern Gaza”, Belgium prepared to receive injured people

“We are investigating how we can return seriously injured Palestinians to our country to help them, for example, in our burn center,” Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) said yesterday during question time in Parliament.

“That is one of the humanitarian aid measures on which there has been an agreement within the government,” confirms Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter (Green) in “The Morning” on Radio 1. “If requested, we are prepared to transfer injured people to Belgium. “

How this would work in practice is still being investigated. “This requires a lot of local cooperation, including from Israel, but also from Hamas,” said De Sutter. The Belgian government is also looking at how it can help wounded Palestinians on the ground, but also wounded Israeli hostages.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan wants Israel to allow 500 trucks of aid into Gaza, instead of the current 100. He said this during the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Erdogan also wants to care for injured Palestinians in Turkey. This would concern people with chronic conditions.

The United Nations warns that poverty among the Palestinian population will rise by 34 percent if the war continues for another month. This would put about half a million additional citizens below the poverty line.

Gross domestic product, which has already fallen 4 percent after a month of war, would fall by 8 percent. Some 16 years of development could be wiped out.

Israel would take four-hour humanitarian breaks every day in the north of the Gaza Strip. During those breaks, aid should be able to reach Gazans and civilians should be able to move to the south.

Journalist Jens Franssen emphasizes in “The Morning” on Radio 1 that it is not about a ceasefire. “In a ceasefire, arms are laid down by one or both sides to reach a peace agreement. This pause is made to allow humanitarian aid to enter, not to negotiate. The fighting continues after that.”

“There has been great pressure on Israel for some time to take humanitarian breaks,” says Franssen. “The US insisted on a break of a few days, but Israel vetoed that, fearing that Hamas could use that time to regroup.”

Israel has carried out a retaliatory strike on a target in Syria. This is what the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) say on X. The attack is a response to a drone attack on a school in Eilat, in southern Israel. There were no injuries.

Israel holds the Syrian government “fully responsible for any terrorist attack emanating from its territory,” IDF said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with the American channel Fox News that it is not his intention to govern or occupy Gaza. “Gaza must be demilitarized, deradicalized and rebuilt after the war. There must be a civilian government.”

“We strive to give Gaza and ourselves a better future. The army is making good progress in the offensive against Hamas. We must ensure that an attack like the one on October 7 does not happen again. We must prevent the re-emergence of a Hamas-like group .”