Plans to create a maritime corridor to bring aid to Gaza accelerate
Plans to deliver humanitarian aid by sea to the famine-stricken Gaza Strip after five months of war between Israel and Hamas accelerated on Friday with the announcement of a sea corridor from Cyprus and the construction of a temporary port.
In his annual State of the Union address, US President Joe Biden said his military would lead "an emergency mission to establish a temporary jetty in the Mediterranean off the coast of Gaza that can receive large shipments of food, water, medicine and temporary shelter".
In the Cypriot port of Larnaca, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she expected a corridor to be opened on Sunday to transport aid from Larnaca to the Palestinian territory.
Israel "welcomed" the initiative, which "will make it possible to increase humanitarian aid (...) after a security check in accordance with Israeli standards", Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat told the X news agency.
Israel welcomes the inauguration of the maritime corridor from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip. The Cypriot initiative will allow the increase of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, after security checks are carried out in accordance with Israeli standards.
Israel will continue to… pic.twitter.com/T68hLQB0mY— Lior Haiat 🇮🇱🎗️ (@LiorHaiat) March 8, 2024
Israel's main ally, the United States, is putting increasing pressure on Israel, which is only allowing aid to the Palestinian enclave in dribs and drabs.
Aid "cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip", said Biden in his speech, who also urged an "immediate ceasefire".
The construction of a "temporary landing" will take several weeks and does not involve the deployment of US soldiers on the ground, US officials said, noting that the Israelis had been informed.
However, senior UN officials said air or sea deliveries cannot replace ground deliveries and warned of "almost inevitable widespread famine" in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The UN says 2.2 million of Gaza's 2.4 million people are on the brink of starvation. "Diversification of land-based supply routes" remains the optimal solution, said Sigrid Kaag, UN aid coordinator for Gaza.
Negotiations "next week"
According to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, at least 20 civilians - mostly children - have died of malnutrition and dehydration.
The situation is particularly critical in the north, where overland delivery of aid is almost impossible due to fighting, destruction and looting.
On 29 February, Israeli soldiers opened fire on a starving crowd that rushed a convoy in Gaza City.
The army said on Friday that its "analysis" of what happened that day, when Hamas said 120 people were killed, "revealed that the troops did not fire on the humanitarian convoy, but on a number of suspects who approached the soldiers and posed a threat".
The war has so far left 30,878 people dead in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry's latest toll, adding that 78 people were killed in the last 24 hours.
Operational activity continues in Gaza as IDF troops:
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 8, 2024
🔺Struck sources of fire and a weapons storage facility assessed to be the source of rockets fired toward communities in southern Israel.
🔺Eliminated approx. 30 terrorists in different areas of Gaza.
🔺Located multiple… pic.twitter.com/Np1jThRcC4
The conflict was triggered when Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,160 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The Islamists also kidnapped some 250 people. Israel estimates that 130 are still being held in Gaza, of whom 31 are said to have died.
The mediators -- the United States, Qatar and Egypt -- hope to reach an agreement on a truce that includes the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners before the start of Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims that begins early next week.
Talks in Cairo with Hamas representatives were suspended after four days and are expected to "resume next week", according to AlQahera News, which is close to Egyptian intelligence.
Negotiations "are not broken", said US ambassador to Israel Jack Lew.
Rafah, the last bastion
The Islamist movement's delegation left the Egyptian capital after Israel failed to meet its "minimum demands", according to a Palestinian official.
Hamas, considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU, demands a permanent ceasefire and that Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza before signing any agreement.
"The Israeli army will continue to operate throughout the Gaza Strip, including in Rafah, the last stronghold of Hamas," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Thursday.
For its "total victory", Israel says it is preparing a ground offensive in the southernmost city of Gaza, where 1.5 million Palestinians are crowded, according to the UN.
At the Najjar hospital in Rafah, a man held the body of a child, wrapped in a blood-soaked white cloth, killed in an attack on a residential area, according to an AFP correspondent.
