LAST UPDATE | 12 Mar
A SPANISH CHARITY ship taking 200 tonnes of humanitarian food aid to war-ravaged Gaza set sail from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus today, aiming to forge a “maritime corridor”.
A second vessel is being readied to soon make the same journey to help besieged Palestinians, Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos has said.
At the same time, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said that more children have been reported killed in the war raging in Gaza than in four years of conflict around the world.
“Staggering. The number of children reported killed in just over 4 months in #Gaza is higher than the number of children killed in 4 years of wars around the world combined,” Philippe Lazzarini said on X, formerly Twitter.
His post referenced United Nations numbers showing that 12,193 children had been killed in conflicts worldwide between 2019 and 2022.
Elsewhere, Morocco has sent 40 tonnes of humanitarian supplies for Gaza via an Israeli airport, a diplomatic source told AFP today, the latest bid to diversify aid routes into the war-battered territory.
The food aid has arrived at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv before being transferred to the Palestinian Red Crescent at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, the Moroccan diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
However, there have been concerns internationally, including from President Michael D Higgins yesterday, that Israel has been slowing, blocking or halting the entry of these aid shipments into Gaza.
The Spanish non-government group Open Arms told AFP that its ship, with a barge in tow, started voyage of nearly 400 kilometres from the port of Larnaca around 6.50am GMT.
“They have left,” said spokeswoman Laura Lanuza, but the group did not specify where and when the vessel was expected to arrive, for security reasons.
Later this evening, she told AFP the ship would take “several days” to reach its destination.
The shipment is a joint effort between charities Open Arms and World Central Kitchen.
In a post on X, World Central Kitchen, an American food aid charity, said that the boat contained rice, flour, legumes, canned vegetables and proteins.
WCK-provided aid has set sail for Gaza on the @openarms_fund boat. We dispatched almost 200 tons of food—rice, flour, legumes, canned veggies & proteins. Alongside the @UAEAid & @CyprusMFA, our Relief Team is working to send as many aid boats as possible.#ChefsForThePeople pic.twitter.com/oypXF8WbDH
— World Central Kitchen (@WCKitchen) March 12, 2024
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said on X that the voyage was “one of hope and humanity”, and would establish a “lifeline to civilians”.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the ship’s departure for Gaza was a “sign of hope”.
The first day of Ramadan came and went in Gaza, with residents marking a joyless iftar (meal at sunset) against a backdrop of famine, disease and displacement as the conflict in the besieged territory ground on more than five months after it began.
As the Muslim world welcomed the start of the holy month yesterday, Gazans faced continued Israeli bombardments and a spiralling humanitarian crisis.
With the flow of food and other assistance slowed to a trickle, a UN report citing the territory’s health ministry said 25 people have now died from malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children.
In Gaza’s southern border city of Rafah, where 1.5 million people have sought refuge, the usual generous iftar meal marking the end of the day’s fast was replaced by “canned food and beans”, said displaced Khan Younis resident Mohammad al-Masry.
“We didn’t prepare anything. What do displaced people have?” al-Masry said.
“We don’t feel the joy of Ramadan… Look at the people staying in tents in the cold.”
In Gaza City, surrounded by collapsed buildings, one family gathered around a table next to the ruins of their home to break the fast yesterday.
“Today is the first day of Ramadan. We decided to come and break the fast here in our home that was struck, despite the destruction and the rubble,” said Om Shaher Al Qta’a.
Earlier in the day, Zaki Abu Mansour told AFP in Rafah that his last meal before the fast began had been meagre, and he didn’t know what his next one would be.
“Here’s my kitchen,” the displaced Khan Younis resident added, gesturing to a corner of his tent. “I have only a tomato and a cucumber – that’s all I have, and I have no money to buy anything.”
Aid groups have been warning of the risk of famine in Gaza for weeks, especially in the north of Gaza.
“We are running out of time,” Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Programme (WFP), said. “If we do not exponentially increase the size of aid going into the northern areas” of Gaza, she said, “famine is imminent”.
UN agencies have said their aid convoys have been delayed and turned back by Israeli forces at border crossings.
UNRWA boss Phillipe Lazzarini said yesterday that a shipment of medical aid had been turned back because it contained medical scissors.
“A truck loaded with aid has just been turned back because it had scissors used in children’s medical kits,” Lazzarini said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“Medical scissors are now added to a long list of banned items the Israeli Authorities classify as ‘for dual use’. The list includes basic and lifesaving items: from anesthetics, solar lights, oxygen cylinders and ventilators, to water cleaning tablets, cancer medicines and maternity kits,” he said.
#Gaza: an entire population depends on humanitarian assistance for survival. Very little comes in & restrictions increase.
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) March 11, 2024
A truck loaded with aid has just been turned back because it had scissors used in children’s medical kits.
Medical scissors are now added to a long list of… pic.twitter.com/Obpsi9bVkV
Israel’s siege, bombardment and ground offensive has killed 31,112 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for “silencing the guns” during the Muslim holy month and said he was “appalled and outraged that conflict is continuing”.
Addressing the UN Security Council this afternoon, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war.
He said the crisis in Gaza “is not a natural disaster, it’s not a flood, it’s not an earthquake, it’s man-made”.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, Israel’s military spokesman, said a weekend air strike on an underground compound in central Gaza had targeted Marwan Issa, deputy head of Hamas’s armed wing, though it was unclear if he was killed.
Israel also carried out strikes against Hamas ally Hezbollah deep inside Lebanese territory, with the governor of the local Baalbek-Hermel region saying one man had been killed.
The Israeli military later confirmed its jets had hit two sites in the area “in retaliation to Hezbollah aircraft attacks launched towards the Golan Heights”.
Qatar has said a ceasefire agreement is not likely to come anytime soon.
“We are not near a deal, meaning that we are not seeing both sides converging on language that can resolve the current disagreement over the implementation of a deal,” foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a news conference.
All parties are “continuing to work in the negotiations to reach a deal hopefully within the confines of Ramadan”, Ansari said.
But he added that he could not “offer any timeline” on a deal and explained the conflict remained “very complicated on the ground”.
Includes reporting from AFP
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