UK could put boots on ground in Gaza
Reports of move to have troops help aid effort come as Hamas reviews ceasefire proposal
THE UK Government is considering deploying troops in Gaza as part of international efforts to deliver vital aid to by sea. They would help land humanitarian supplies from a temporary pier currently being built by the US military, the BBC reported yesterday, citing unnamed Whitehall sources.
This could involve driving trucks carrying aid from landing vessels via a causeway to the shore, where it would be deposited and picked up by aid agencies.
The US has said no American forces would go ashore, and personnel from another country would drive the delivery trucks from the pier.
It is understood that nothing has been decided and the proposal has not yet reached Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) declined to comment.
Such a role could put British forces at a higher risk of attack from Hamas.
An official from the militant group told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Hamas will resist any foreign military presence involved with the port project.
On the same day, United Nations officials were forced to take shelter when the under-construction pier came under fire.
The UK is already involved in the preparations for the US-led operation, with Royal Navy ship RFA Cardigan Bay to provide floating accommodation for hundreds of American sailors and soldiers constructing the pier.
British military planning teams have also been embedded at the US operational headquarters in Florida and Cyprus for several weeks, the MoD said on Friday.
Construction of the temporary pier and causeway at sea has begun, after President Joe Biden announced the project in March with the aim of expanding the flow of life-saving humanitarian assistance into Gaza from early May.
Aid pre-screened in Cyprus will be shipped to the Palestinian territory via the multi-national maritime corridor initiative.
Meanwhile, Hamas said yesterday that it was reviewing a new Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, as Egypt intensified efforts to broker a
deal to end the months-long war and stave off a possible Israeli ground offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said the Palestinian militant group was evaluating Israel’s proposal, and “upon completion of its study, it will submit its response”.
He gave no details of Israel’s offer but said it was in response to a proposal from Hamas two weeks ago.
Negotiations earlier this month centred on a six-week ceasefire proposal and the release of 40 civilian and sick hostages in exchange for freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Hamas’s statement came hours after a high-level Egyptian delegation wrapped up a visit to Israel where it discussed a “new vision” for a prolonged ceasefire in Gaza, according to an Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was not immediately clear whether Israel’s latest response to Hamas on a ceasefire was directly related to Friday’s visit to Tel Aviv by Egyptian mediators.
Early yesterday, an Israeli airstrike hit a house in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighbourhood, killing six people, including four children.
The strike killed a man, his wife and their three sons, aged 12, 10 and eight, according to records of the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital’s morgue. A neighbour’s four-month-old girl was also killed, the records showed.
Five people were also killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza overnight when an Israeli strike hit a house, according to officials at the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Elsewhere, Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian men in an exchange of fire at a checkpoint in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the military said.
The Israeli army said the two men were killed after they opened fire from a vehicle at Israeli troops stationed at Salem checkpoint near the Palestinian city of Jenin.
The US has been critical of Israeli policies in the West Bank and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is expected in Israel on Tuesday, has recently determined an army unit committed human rights abuses there before the Gaza war. However, he has stressed this would not affect wider support from the US military.