CHILDREN DIE FROM HUNGER IN GAZA AS RAMADAN BEGINS
▶ Ceasefire talks show no signs of progress with plans for floating port and aid corridor by sea
Gazans begin Ramadan today with no end in sight to a war that has brought death and destruction to the enclave.
Weeks of talks have failed to secure a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel before the holy month, despite last-ditch attempts by mediators from the US, Qatar and Egypt.
US President Joe Biden had urged Israel to agree to a pause in the five-month conflict in which more than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed. It started when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages.
No truce had been agreed to as the new crescent moon was sighted yesterday.
Many families will be forced to observe Ramadan in overcrowded shelters without food, clean water or other essentials. “This will be the most difficult Ramadan we will experience, as we are living in the midst of a famine with no food or drink,” Islam Ibrahim, 38, told The National from Gaza city.
Children are dying from malnutrition in northern Gaza, where Israel has restricted the flow of aid. Those lorries that have been allowed in have been met by desperate crowds seeking to secure precious food.
International efforts to provide aid are picking up momentum after the UAE, US, UK and EU said they would open a sea corridor through Cyprus.
Mr Biden said the US military would build a temporary port on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to receive aid. But the Pentagon has said construction will take up to 60 days.
Sporadic aid drops by plane continue, but groups have said that land routes are the only way to provide enough relief for Gaza’s 2.3 million people.
Many have nowhere to live after months of war have flattened whole districts.
“I used to perform the taraweeh prayers in a different mosque every day,“said Omar Nehad, a displaced Palestinian in Rafah. “Now there are no mosques left. They have all been destroyed.”
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Saturday carried out their largest drone attack in the Red Sea to date, launching dozens of unmanned vehicles at US-led coalition vessels and the bulk carrier Propel Fortune in the Gulf of Aden.
The militia launched assaults on “US war destroyers in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden with 37 drones”, spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised speech on Saturday.
The US initially said 15 drones had been shot down in the attacks on Saturday, but yesterday revised that number to 28.
The last attack close to this size was on January 9, when dozens of drones were launched towards ships in the Red Sea, with US and British forces shooting down 21 of them.
The drones used during Saturday’s attack were intercepted by ships from two naval coalitions, the US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian, which includes Britain, Canada and Bahrain, among others, and the EU-led Aspides operation, which includes French, German, Greek, Spanish and Italian warships.
The coalitions were formed to halt attacks by the Iranian-backed group on shipping in the Red Sea, which accounts for about 12 per cent of global seaborne trade.
US Central Command said American and coalition forces had shot down at least 28 drones in four hours on Saturday morning.
“No US or coalition navy vessels were damaged in the attack and there were also no reports by commercial ships of damage,” Centcom said in a post on social media.
A French warship and fighter jets also shot down four combat drones that were approaching naval vessels belonging to the Aspides mission, the French Army said.
“This defensive action directly contributed to the protection of the cargo ship True Confidence, under the Barbados flag, which was struck on March 6 and is being towed, as well as other commercial vessels transiting in the area,” it said.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said its warship HMS Richmond had joined international allies in repelling a Houthi drone attack overnight, and added that no injuries or damage were sustained.
“Last night, HMS Richmond used its Sea Ceptor missiles to shoot down two attack drones – successfully repelling yet another illegal attack by the Iranian-backed Houthis,” Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said.
The Houthis have been attacking vessels in the international waterway since November last year. They claim to be attacking vessels linked to Israel and its allies in an effort to put pressure on Israel to end its military operation in Gaza, which began on October 7 when Hamas killed about 1,200 in an attack on southern Israel.
The attacks have killed civilian seafarers, caused major disruption to global shipping and threaten to cause serious damage to the Red Sea’s ecosystem after the rebels sank a bulk carrier transporting 21,000 tonnes of fertiliser.
The Houthis are allies of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and say they will not stop the Red Sea attacks until Israel halts its air and ground campaign in Gaza, during which more than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed, the enclave’s Health Ministry says.
During his speech on Saturday, Mr Saree repeated that the group would continue its attacks “until the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted”.
The US said the drones had been identified as presenting “an imminent threat to merchant vessels, US Navy, and coalition ships in the region”.
On Friday, the US said it had destroyed two Houthi vehicle-mounted anti-ship missiles during air strikes in Yemen.
The rebels did not acknowledge any destruction from those strikes.
Britain has also increased its efforts to halt Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. HMS Richmond shot down Houthi drones on Friday in the first use of Sea Ceptor missiles by a ship of its kind, the Royal Navy said on Saturday night.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Wednesday that Washington would continue to hold the Houthis accountable for attacks on international shipping.
The US said the Houthi drones had presented ‘an immediate threat to merchant vessels, the US Navy and coalition ships’