A first boat loaded with 200 tonnes of food is slowly progressing towards the Gaza Strip on Thursday as efforts accelerate to try to deliver more humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian territory and on the verge of famine.
With no new truce in sight after more than five months of war between Israel and Hamas, Israeli bombings continue without respite and have left 69 dead in the last 24 hours, according to the Palestinian Islamist movement’s Ministry of Health.
The Hamas government on Thursday counted more than 40 airstrikes on Khan Younes and Rafah, in the south, as well as on Nuseirat, Jabaliya and Beit Hanoun, in the north of the territory. Intense artillery fire also targeted eastern Rafah, Khan Younes, Zeitoun and Beit Hanoun.
The distribution of aid inside Gaza remains hazardous, particularly in the north where the situation is critical for 300,000 people.
On Wednesday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) denounced a strike on one of its warehouses in Rafah, leaving at least one dead and several injured among its employees. The Hamas Ministry of Health cited a death toll of four, including Mohammad Abou Hasna, presented as an official responsible for the security of the warehouse. But for the Israeli army, it was a Hamas cadre “eliminated” in a targeted strike.
The Ministry of Health also reported seven dead and many injured by Israeli fire at a gathering south of Gaza City where aid distributions were taking place.
Earth and sea
Aid by land only enters sparsely in the Gaza Strip, subject to the control of Israel which has imposed a siege since the start of the war triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7.
The attack resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli sources. According to Israel, 130 hostages are still in Gaza, 32 of whom are believed to have died, out of around 250 people kidnapped that day.
In retaliation, Israel promised to “annihilate” the Islamist movement, in power in Gaza since 2007, and launched an offensive which left 31,341 dead, mostly civilians, according to the report released Thursday by the Ministry of Health.
To deliver aid, several countries have increased airdrops in recent weeks, but the quantities are limited.
A first ship loaded with 200 tonnes of food left Cyprus for Gaza on Tuesday, a journey of around 370 kilometers. This boat from the Spanish NGO Open Arms, which tows a barge, was off the coast of Tel Aviv on Thursday midday, according to the specialist site Marine Traffic.
Cyprus, at the origin of this maritime corridor, announced that a second boat was ready to leave with a larger cargo.
Four American army boats also left the United States on Tuesday with the equipment necessary to build a pier and a quay in Gaza to disembark humanitarian aid “within 60 days” , according to American authorities.
“No valid alternative”
“The humanitarian element which must be quickly addressed with the expected arrival of ships is a central issue which will facilitate the delivery of food to the population and not to Hamas,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday during a a visit to the troops in Gaza.
But according to the UN, maritime deliveries and airdrops cannot replace land transport, a widely shared observation.
“There is no viable alternative to land routes through Egypt and Jordan and Israel’s entry points into Gaza for large-scale aid deliveries,” the United States stressed, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, the EU and Qatar in a joint statement.
A meeting is due to take place next week in Cyprus for “in-depth discussions on activating the (maritime) corridor including US efforts”, they said.
They also judged that opening the Israeli port of Ashdod, north of Gaza, to humanitarian aid “would constitute a welcome and significant addition” to the system.
For now, aid by land is mainly transported from Jordan or Egypt to two Israeli checkpoints in southern Gaza where goods are extensively inspected.
On Tuesday, for the first time, the Israeli army authorized the entry of trucks from the World Food Program (WFP) into northern Gaza, raising hopes of an acceleration of deliveries to meet the immense needs of some 2.4 million inhabitants of the territory.
“Humanitarian Island”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to push the land operation to Rafah, a town adjoining the closed border with Egypt and where, according to the UN, around 1.5 million Palestinians are massed, which worries the international community, including the United States, Israel’s main ally.
Israel must make the protection of civilians and humanitarian aid in Gaza its “number one” priority, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.
The spokesperson for the Israeli army, Daniel Hagari, spoke on Wednesday of the establishment of a “humanitarian island” for the inhabitants of Rafah who would be displaced before the offensive and where they would have “temporary accommodation, food, water and field hospitals.
Washington is still trying, with Qatar and Egypt, the two other mediator countries, to reach an agreement for a truce of several weeks between Israel and Hamas. During the night, Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh judged that an agreement was still possible, calling on Israel – which refuses a definitive ceasefire and instead pleads for a pause in the fighting while demanding proof of life of his hostages – “to abandon his intransigence”.
reference: www.lapresse.ca