Representatives of the Middle East Quartet, which consists out of the European Union, United States, Russia and the United Nations held a tele-conference over common concerns vis-à-vis a probable coronavirus outbreak in the Gaza Strip.
While the representatives received a comprehensive briefing on the U.N.’s global 2 billion dollars response plan launched this week; the discussion focused on the Hamas-controlled enclave, where the “risks (of disastrous proportions) remain substantial.”
It is important to explained that while there have been only nine confirmed cases in Gaza, a lack of test-kits to shed light on the scale of the outbreak, have raised concerns over the true severity of the situation.
And while the Jihadist terror groups openly seek the annihilating the Jewish State; The Israeli Military’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the territories revealed that it has been working in cooperation with the international community during the past month “to advance the efforts against the spread of the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip.”
As part of these efforts, among other vital humanitarian measures, Israel donated some of its own coronavirus detection kits to the Jihadist plagued territory, in addition to “the transfer of hundreds of medical protection kits, medicine and disinfectants.”
In a commending response, the United Nations lauded the Israeli humanitarian efforts, referring to it as “a major factor in the (apparent) containment (of the coronavirus in Gaza) achieved thus far.”
And while Israeli authorities are going out of their way to assist the Palestinian population-centers in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank; the Islamist organizations in the coastal Palestinian enclave have announced their decision to cancel a pre-scheduled mass-rally along Gaza’s border with the Jewish State. The demonstration, which was supposed to be held today, was intended to mark the second anniversary of the so-called “Great March of Return,” which prompted weekly riots along the security barrier with Israel by Palestinians seeking to re-conquer territories which they claim to have lost during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Nevertheless, in light of efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, senior leaders of various Palestinian groups urged their supporters not to attend the rally. One such example can be seen in the words of Khaled Al-Batsh, a senior member of the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad; “We are preparing to mark the Land’s day and the anniversary of Gaza’s Great March of Return and because the Palestinian people are our most valuable asset in this conflict, we call upon our people not to go to the Return encampments on March 30 and to stay home in order to maintain the safety of our people in the face of this lethal pandemic. Also, we call upon our people to stick with the health and precautionary measures.”