LAST UPDATE | 13 Mar
THE EUROPEAN UNION’S foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has said “starvation is being used as a weapon of war”, as he addressed conflict in Gaza at the the UN Security Council.
He told the Council that the humanitarian crisis is “man-made”.
“If we look at alternative ways to provide support, it’s because the land crossings have been artificially closed,” he said, charging that “starvation is being used as a weapon of war”.
His comments came as a Spanish charity vessel, the Open Arms, began its journey to Gaza from Cyprus, towing a barge with 200 tonnes of aid, in a first voyage meant to open a maritime corridor.
US charity World Central Kitchen has said work is “underway” on a jetty to unload the shipment.
Cyprus said a second vessel was also being prepared.
Aid groups have been warning of the risk of famine in besieged Gaza for weeks, and the United Nations has reported particular difficulty in accessing the territory’s north for deliveries of food and other humanitarian supplies.
Four US Army vessels also departed a base in Virginia yesterday, carrying about 100 soldiers and equipment needed to build a temporary port on Gaza’s coast to facilitate aid shipments.
The new facility – which will consist of an offshore platform and a pier to bring aid ashore – is expected to be up and running “at the 60-day mark”, US Army Brigadier General Brad Hinson told journalists.
About half a dozen Arab and western nations have airdropped food parcels on parachutes into Gaza, and Morocco has sent a planeload of relief supplies via Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.
The UN aid coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, and head of the United Nations Office for Project Services, Jorge Moreira da Silva, said in a joint statement they “welcome the opening of a maritime corridor” while cautioning it may not be enough.
“For aid delivery at scale there is no meaningful substitute to the many land routes and entry points from Israel into Gaza,” they said.
The Israeli army last night announced a pilot project for delivering aid directly into the north, saying six World Food Programme (WFP) aid trucks had entered through a new crossing.
Israel has maintained strict control over supplies entering the Gaza Strip, and aid workers have blamed cumbersome screenings for the severity of the current shortages.
Israel blames problems on the Palestinian side for inadequacies in aid delivery.
Without specifically mentioning the new overland route, the WFP wrote on social media platform X that it had “delivered enough food for 25,000 people to Gaza City early Tuesday in (the) first successful convoy to the north since 20 February”.
“With people in northern #Gaza on the brink of famine, we need deliveries every day,” it added.
Morocco, meanwhile, sent a plane loaded with 40 tonnes of relief supplies directly to Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, a diplomatic source said, a bid to bypass bottlenecks on the Egypt-Gaza border.
Weeks of talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have failed to bring about a truce and hostage exchange deal ahead of Ramadan.
Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said that, although talks between the parties continued, “we are not near a deal”.
Hamas has demanded a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again vowed to push on with the offensive.
In a speech delivered via video link to a pro-Israel lobby in the United States, he again pledged to “destroy Hamas”.
“We will finish the job in Rafah while enabling the civilian population to get out of harm’s way,” he said.
Yesterday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the St Patrick’s Day visit to the White House is an opportunity to put forward the Irish people’s perspective on the conflict in Gaza.
However, speaking to reporters in Boston this evening, he said “we’re certainly not going to start with uncomfortable truths”, adding: “I’m not here to tell him off or tick him off.
“I’m here to talk to him to understand the American position and see if we can influence it in a positive way.”
Varadkar will travel to Washington DC today, with a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office in the White House to take place with the US president on Friday.
“We’ve already good relationship with the US and we have a really good relationship with President Biden. I don’t think I’ve ever felt a president to be on our side so much as President Biden,” he said.
“He’s a real supporter of Ireland, always wants to know what he can do to help,” said Varadkar.
The current conflict started with the 7 October Hamas attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.
The militants also took around 250 hostages, dozens of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes about 130 captives remain in Gaza, including 32 presumed dead.
Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive have killed 31,184 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Includes reporting by Christina Finn (in Washington) and © AFP 2024
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