LAST UPDATE | 9 Mar
TWO HUNDRED TONNES of food aid were “ready” to be sent from Cyprus to Gaza by sea, a Spanish NGO has said, the first shipment along an EU-backed maritime corridor.
A spokeswoman for Open Arms, a charity whose boat docked three weeks ago in the Cypriot port of Larnaca, said “everything will be ready to be able to set sail” later today.
“Depending on all the authorisations and permits, and when we get them”, the vessel – also called Open Arms – could embark “today or tomorrow”, Laura Lanuza told AFP.
The good will sail from Cyprus along a new maritime corridor the EU Commission hopes will open this weekend.
In Larnaca, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen had earlier expressed hope that a maritime corridor could open tomorrow, although details remained unclear.
She said a “pilot operation” would be launched yesterday, aided by the United Arab Emirates which secured “the first of many shipments of goods to the people of Gaza”.
There are no functioning ports in Gaza and officials did not say where the initial shipments would go, whether they would be subject to inspection by Israel, or who would distribute aid.
US President Joe Biden said in Thursday’s State of the Union address that the US military would build a “temporary pier” off Gaza’s coast to bring in aid.
He told reporters yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must allow in more aid, a day after he warned Israeli leaders against using aid as “a bargaining chip”.
Israel said it “welcomes” the planned maritime corridor.
The Pentagon said yesterday the plan to establish the “Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore” port would take up to 60 days and likely involve up to 1,000 US personnel.
Once established, it “could provide more than two million meals to the citizens of Gaza per day”, Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told reporters in Washington.
The pier would allow ships to transfer cargo to smaller vessels to transport and offload onto a temporary causeway for delivery to Gaza, said Ryder, who repeated Biden’s promise that there would be no US troops on the ground in Gaza.
US officials said the plan builds on the maritime aid corridor proposed by Cyprus – the closest European Union member to Gaza.
Some countries, including the US, have begun to airdrop food and other assistance over the besieged Gaza Strip, but a parachute malfunction caused a number of deaths yesterday.
Five Palestinians were killed and 10 wounded north of the coastal Al-Shati refugee camp, said Mohammed al-Sheikh, emergency room head nurse at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital.
A witness told AFP he and his brother followed the parachuted aid in the hope of getting “a bag of flour”.
“Then, all of a sudden, the parachute didn’t open and fell down like a rocket”, hitting a house, said Mohammed al-Ghoul.
Jordanian and US military officials denied that aircraft from either country caused the fatalities.
“We express sympathies to the families of those who were killed,” the US Central Command said in a statement.
“Contrary to some reports, this was not the result of US airdrops.”
Belgium, Egypt, France and the Netherlands were also involved in the airdrop.
Military experts who spoke to The Journal said that the air drops the US, Britain and Jordan were working on were not enough to get the required volume of aid into the besieged Gaza.
As reported first by The Journal on Monday, Ireland is now working with Jordanian officials with a hope to join those airdrops.
International Committee of the Red Cross president Mirjana Spoljaric has said that getting a steady, substantial flow of aid into Gaza is “only part of the solution”.
Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said Israel is “reckless” with the lives of civilians in Gaza.
“Many countries are trying to bring an end to the conflict and I know that,” Martin said.
“I have no doubt that many in the US want this to end – but Israel is reckless with its own allies,” he said.
“And Israel is reckless with the region but above all, it’s reckless in terms of the lives of ordinary Gazans and the people of Gaza. Absolutely reckless in terms of allowing what’s happening to happen on a daily basis.”
Hamas’s unprecedented October attack on southern Israel resulted in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has responded with a relentless offensive that the health ministry in Gaza said has killed at least 30,960 people, mostly women and children.
Hamas militants also took about 250 hostages, some of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes 99 hostages remain alive in Gaza and that 31 have died.
After a week of talks with mediators in Cairo failed to produce a breakthrough, Hamas’s armed wing said it would not agree to a hostage-prisoner exchange without the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida said “there is no compromise on this”.
Hamas negotiators left Cairo to consult with the movement’s leadership in Qatar but US officials denied the negotiations had broken down.
“The ball is in their court,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Washington.
Israel said today that its spy chief had met with his US counterpart as part of efforts to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza.
“The head of the Mossad, David Barnea, met yesterday with the head of the CIA, Bill Burns, as part of the ceaseless efforts to advance another hostage release deal,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on behalf of the Mossad.
The statement said Israel remained in touch with mediators for a possible deal but that Hamas was “not interested” and was “striving to inflame the region during Ramadan”, the Muslim fasting month which could begin as early as Sunday.
Includes reporting by Press Association and © AFP 2024
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