Palestinians killed during raid in occupied West Bank
Violent clashes overnight left multiple Palestinians dead in the West Bank on Wednesday, with another two Palestinians killed during confrontations with Israeli forces overnight, bringing the overall toll to six over the past 24 hours.
Israeli police said a Palestinian stabbed and wounded two people at a checkpoint near Jerusalem before being shot Wednesday.
Violence has surged in the occupied West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack triggered the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
At least 427 Palestinians have been killed there, mostly during confrontations with Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israeli-Palestinian tensions often soar during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began Sunday, over access to a major holy site in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said six aid trucks entered Gaza through the north late Tuesday as international pressure mounts for more humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed during the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel on Oct. 7, and around 250 people were abducted. Hamas is believed to still be holding around 100 hostages.
A quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, according to the United Nations.
Aid effort update
Cyprus’ foreign minister said a U.S. initiative to build a pier off Gaza for largescale aid deliveries to the territory by sea will eventually be folded into the Cyprus-Gaza maritime corridor that’s currently running.
Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said Wednesday although the two initiatives are now separate, all aid reaching Gaza by sea will eventually have as its single departure point the Cypriot port of Larnaca.
That’s where all the aid will be collected and loaded onto ships after undergoing thorough security screening by Cypriot customs officials, with personnel from Israel and other countries acting as observers to ensure the integrity of the process.
Having such a single departure point would address the Israelis’ security concerns regarding inspections of all cargo to ensure that nothing is loaded on ships that Hamas could use against Israeli troops, Kombos said.
Ships making the trip from Cyprus to Gaza won’t be escorted by military vessels for security reasons because monitoring can be done through other means, the foreign minister said.
Kombos said aid that will reach Gaza by ship in the coming weeks will use the U.S. charity World Central Kitchen’s distribution network in the Palestinian territory. But Cypriot authorities and other partners are looking to expand those networks on the ground in Gaza to include United Nations agencies like the World Food Program.
A second vessel being loaded with aid for Gaza was docked at Larnaca port and was preparing to depart, Cyprus’ foreign minister said Wednesday.
The ship will begin its journey to Gaza once the ship operated by the Spanish charity Open Arms, which is now at sea, reaches the territory in the next few days, offloads and distributes its 200 tons of food, the minister said.
Minister Constantinos Kombos said Wednesday the larger vessel will carry more aid than the Open Arms ship, but he wouldn’t say when it would depart. He said that depends on whether all goes smoothly with the delivery of the Open Arms shipment and on weather conditions.
The vessel will tow a barge loaded with aid as well as carrying some in its internal bays. It will offload at the same jetty being built by World Central Kitchen and where the Open Arms ship will offload.
Kombos said what’s key is to ensure that seaborne aid deliveries are done in at specific intervals so that World Central Kitchen’s network in Gaza isn’t overwhelmed with aid before it can complete distribution to its various kitchen locations.
The official said the idea is to imbue Gaza’s Palestinian population with the understanding that such deliveries will happen at a steady, continuous pace in order to allay concerns that this would be a short-run venture and avoid a potentially dangerous rush of people at the collection point.
According to Kombos, many countries are lining up to either contribute aid or assist in the operation. The idea for the Cypriot initiative for establishing such a maritime corridor is to keep the effort on a state level and to avoid private donations at this time.
Toll now over 31,000
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the bodies of 88 people killed in Israel’s bombardment have been brought to local hospitals in the last 24 hours.
That brings the war’s overall death toll among Palestinians to 31,272, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its tallies.
The ministry says around two-thirds of the dead are women and children, and that the real overall toll is higher because bodies are buried under the rubble or in areas that medics can’t access.
The ministry says over 73,000 people have been wounded in the war.
Israeli drone strike
BEIRUT — An Israeli drone strike Wednesday targeting a car in southern Lebanon near the coastal city of Tyre killed a member of Hamas and at least one other person.
Hamas identified the member who was killed as Hadi Mustafa. Lebanese state media said he is from the Rashidieh refugee camp near Tyre, where Hamas has a notable presence.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the other person killed was a Syrian citizen who was on a motorcycle near the targeted car.
The strike comes a day after top Hamas official Khalil al-Hayyeh met Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, and days after talks between Hamas and Israel for a truce in the war in Gaza ahead of the holy month of Ramadan broke down.