2nd Gaza aid shipment sets sail from Cyprus
LARNACA, Cyprus – A second shipment of aid carrying almost 400 tons of food for Gaza left Cyprus’ Larnaca port on Saturday, a Reuters witness said.
The aid will be taken to Gaza by a cargo ship and a platform towed by a salvage vessel.
It will be the second dispatch of aid via Cyprus, where Cypriot authorities have established, in cooperation with Israel, a maritime corridor to facilitate pre-screened cargoes arriving directly in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
U.S.-based charity World Central Kitchen arranged the mission with Spain’s Open Arms charity, with financing mainly from the UAE and support from Cypriot authorities.
On its first mission earlier in March, it built a makeshift jetty from rubble to enable offloading almost 200 tons of food in the enclave, which does not have any port facilities. Saturday’s dispatch includes two forklifts and a crane to assist with future marine deliveries.
Separately, the U.S. plans to construct a floating pier off Gaza to receive aid. The target date for completion is May 1, but it could be ready by around April 15, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said late Friday.
The United Nations has warned that famine is imminent in the northern Gaza Strip, where 300,000 people are trapped by fighting. Across the whole of the enclave more than half its population of 2.3 million people could face famine by July.
Teen killed in West Bank raid
Israeli forces fatally shot a 13-yearold Palestinian boy during a raid in the occupied West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Saturday, an incident that the Israeli military said was under review.
There were confrontations with Israeli forces at the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin city, during a pre-dawn military raid there, the Wafa report said. The Israeli military said a number of Palestinian gunmen had shot at its troops, who returned fire.
A report was later received regarding a Palestinian minor who was killed, the military said.
“The circumstances of the incident are under review,” it said in a statement to Reuters.
The teen’s death was confirmed by Fawaz Hammad, director of Al-Razi Hospital in Jenin, Wafa said.
Blast wounds UN peacekeepers
Three United Nations observers and a translator were wounded on Saturday when a shell exploded near them as they were carrying out a foot patrol in south Lebanon, the U.N. peacekeeping mission said, adding it was still investigating the origin of the blast.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL, as well as unarmed technical observers known as UNTSO, are stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel, known as the Blue Line.
The armed Lebanese group Hezbollah has been trading fire with the Israeli military across the Blue Line since October in parallel with the war in Gaza.
The Israeli military denied involvement in the incident.