First vessel to use new sea route delivers aid to Gaza Pet lizard’s bite proves deadly for owner
A ship has delivered 200 tonnes of humanitarian supplies, food and water to Gaza, the Israeli military said, inaugurating a sea route from Cyprus for aid to help ease the humanitarian crisis brought by Israel’s five-monthold offensive in the enclave.
Israel has been under pressure to allow more aid into Gaza, especially in the Palestinian territory’s isolated north where hunger is at its worst, with many people reduced to eating animal feed and weeds.
The United States has joined other countries in airdropping supplies into northern Gaza and has announced separate plans to construct a pier to get aid in.
Aid groups said the airdrops and sea shipments are less efficient than trucks in delivering the massive amounts of aid needed.
Instead, the groups have called on Israel to guarantee safe corridors for truck convoys after land deliveries became nearly impossible because of military restrictions, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of order after the Hamasrun police force largely vanished from the streets.
The ship, operated by the Spanish aid group Open Arms, left Cyprus towing a barge laden with food, including rice, flour, lentils, beans, tuna and canned meat.
The food was sent by World Central Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres, which operates kitchens providing free meals in Gaza.
Throughout Friday, the ship could be seen off Gaza’s coast.
Yesterday, the military said its cargo had been unloaded onto 12 trucks. Grainy footage released by the military showed a truck on a pier approaching the barge.
The food is to be distributed in the north, the largely devastated target of Israel’s initial offensive in Gaza, where up to 300,000 Palestinians are believed to remain, mostly cut off by Israeli forces since October.
The delivery is intended to pave the way for larger shipments.
A second vessel will head to Gaza once the supplies on the first ship are distributed, Cyprus’ Foreign Minister
Constantinos Kombos said. Its timing depends in part on whether the Open Arms delivery goes smoothly, he said.
The Israel-Hamas war was triggered by Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1200 people and resulted in another 250 being taken into Gaza as hostages.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians and driven most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes. A quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, according to the United Nations.
This week, Israel began allowing trucks to enter directly into the north, a step aid groups have long called for.
A pet owner who was placed on life support after he was bitten by a Gila monster died of complications from the desert lizard’s venom, an autopsy report obtained by The Associated Press yesterday confirms.
The report also found heart and liver problems were significant contributing factors in the death of Christopher Ward, from Colorado, United States.
Ward, 34, was taken to a hospital after being bitten by one of his two pet Gila monsters on February 12.
His death less than four days later is believed to be the first from a Gila monster in the US in almost a century.
The autopsy, conducted by the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office on February 18, said Ward was bitten for four minutes and wavered in and out of consciousness for about two hours before seeking medical attention.
He suffered seizures and acute respiratory failure at the hospital.
Ward’s girlfriend handed over the lizard named Winston and another named Potato to an animal control officer in the Denver suburb of Lakewood the day after the bite.
She told police she had heard something that “didn’t sound right” and entered a room to see Winston latched onto Ward’s hand, according to the animal control officer’s report.
She said she and Ward bought Winston at a reptile exhibition in Denver in October and Potato from a breeder in Arizona in November. Told Gila monsters were illegal in Lakewood, the woman said she wanted them out of her house as soon as possible, according to the report.
The lizards were sent to a reptile centre in South Dakota.
Before Ward, the last person to die in the US of a Gila monster bite was around 1930.