live blog
Federal Defense Minister Pistorius has allowed aid to be dropped via the Gaza Strip. An aid convoy with food has reached the north of the Gaza Strip. All developments in the live blog.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has given the green light for the German Air Force to drop urgently needed aid supplies over the Gaza Strip. The SPD politician signed a corresponding order to the Bundeswehr on Wednesday.
The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael Roth (SPD), has confirmed discussions about German participation in the airlift for aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip. In the ARD morning magazine he said that there was “obviously” a corresponding request from the Foreign Office to the Federal Ministry of Defense. The SPD politician announced that this will certainly be discussed in the Foreign Affairs Committee today.
Yesterday “Spiegel” reported on Germany’s participation in an airlift. Accordingly, the Defense and Foreign Ministries have agreed in principle on the appropriate deployment of the Air Force.
The US military has dropped food over the Gaza Strip several times since the beginning of March. The actions are part of efforts to improve the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory. “If people are starving there, that will make the situation in Israel neither safer nor more peaceful,” argued Roth.
A Greek military ship fired on two Houthi militia drones in the Gulf of Aden, a Greek Defense Ministry official said. The drones then turned and moved away, reported the Greek broadcaster ERT, citing the Defense Ministry in Athens. The Greek frigate “Hydra” accompanies a merchant ship as part of the EU naval operation “Aspides”.
The EU mission was launched in February to protect the key Red Sea maritime trade route from drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militia. The Houthis see themselves as part of the “Axis of Resistance” in the Middle East war directed against Israel. The militia wants to force an end to the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip by shelling ships, which followed the unprecedented massacre by the Islamist Hamas in Israel on October 7th.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deeply angered by a US intelligence report that suggests his impending overthrow, according to a media report. The head of government is foaming with anger, reports the news channel Channel 12. In their report, the American secret services had expressed the expectation that the Israeli population had lost trust in Netanyahu’s leadership qualities and would stage mass protests demanding his resignation and new elections. The USA is Israel’s most important ally.
The Iran-backed Yemeni Houthis fired a short-range ballistic missile at the destroyer USS Laboon in the Red Sea, according to US sources. “The Centcom and a coalition ship successfully engaged and destroyed two unmanned drones that were launched from a Houthi-controlled area in Yemen,” US Central Command said.
An aid convoy carrying food has reached the north of the embattled Gaza Strip via a new Israeli military road. After a check at the Israeli border crossing at Kerem Shalom, six trucks brought aid from the World Food Program (WFP) across the border into the northern Gaza Strip from the so-called Gate 96 near Kibbutz Beeri. The military announced this. It was a pilot project to prevent the aid supplies from falling into the hands of the Islamist Hamas. “The results of this pilot project will be presented to government officials,” a spokesman said.
Given the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, Israel is under massive international pressure to allow more aid into the Palestinian territory. Humanitarian aid is usually checked at the Kerem Shalom and Nitzana border crossings and then enters the Gaza Strip via the south. Nitzana is located on the border between Israel and Egypt, Kerem Shalom in the border triangle between Israel, Egypt and the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli army, the relief supplies that were now brought into the Gaza Strip via Gate 96 had previously been checked in Kerem Shalom.
According to a media report, Germany wants to take part in the airlift for Gaza. The first ship carrying food for the Gaza Strip has left the port in Cyprus.