Bombs still drop as aid boat waits for OK
GAZA STRIP: A boat laden with food for Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza was “ready” to set sail from Cyprus as fighting raged between Israeli troops and Hamas militants ahead of Ramadan.
The sea route aims to counter aid access restrictions, which humanitarians and foreign governments have blamed on Israel.
Hopes were fading fast for a pause in the fighting before Ramadan this week, as Israel accused Hamas of seeking to “inflame” the region during the Muslim fasting month.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine, particularly in north Gaza where no overland border crossings are open.
In Rafah, in Gaza’s far south, water and food are scarce as roughly 1.5 million Palestinians sought refuge in the city. Spanish charity Open
Arms said its boat, which docked three weeks ago in Cyprus’s Larnaca port, was “ready” to embark but awaits final authorisation.
Open Arms spokeswoman Laura Lanuza told AFP that Israeli authorities were inspecting the cargo of “200 tonnes of basic foodstuffs, rice and flour, cans of tuna”.
US charity World Central Kitchen, which has partnered with Open Arms, has teams in Gaza who were “constructing a dock” to unload the shipment, Lanuza said.
A US effort for a “temporary pier” to receive aid off Gaza, which the Pentagon said would take up to 60 days to establish, builds upon the maritime corridor proposed by Cyprus, senior US officials said.
The US military said it airdropped more than 41,000 meals into Gaza on Saturday, and Canada has said it too will join aerial aid delivery missions. But a steady flow of relief into Gaza was “only part of the solution”, said International Committee of the Red Cross chief Mirjana Spoljaric.
While residents of Rafah wait for aid, another 82 people in Gaza were reportedly killed in strikes over the weekend.
The southern city of Khan Yunis was struck, clearly visible from Rafah where the desOn perate residents hold out for an attack.
Israel has demanded Hamas release the estimated 100 remaining hostages it snatched on October 7 last year, before any ceasefire could go ahead. After a week of talks with mediators in Cairo failed to produce a breakthrough, Hamas’s armed wing said it would not agree to a hostage-prisoner exchange unless Israeli forces withdraw.
Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea had met CIA director William Burns on Friday “as part of the ceaseless efforts to advance another hostage release deal”.
US President Joe Biden acknowledged it would now be “tough” to secure a new truce deal in time for Ramadan.
But Biden said Netanyahu’s approach to the war in Gaza was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel”, as the US leader’s impatience with his Israeli counterpart grows.
Netanyahu “has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas,” Biden said, but added that “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.” “In my view he is hurting Israel more than helping Israel,” he said.