The situation for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic. Everything is missing. After deliveries from the air, help should now also come by sea. The news at a glance.
Washington/Tel Aviv/Beirut (dpa) The US military, together with international partners, is to set up a temporary port on the coast of the Gaza Strip. The civilian population in need will receive additional help by sea, as a high-ranking US government official in Washington announced.
The main part of the port is a temporary pier where large ships can dock to deliver food, water, medicine and emergency shelter. This would offer “the capacity for hundreds of additional truckloads of relief supplies per day,” explained another high-ranking US government official.
Deliveries would initially come via Cyprus, made possible by the US military and a coalition of partners and allies. The implementation of the project will take a few weeks. However, help from US soldiers on site is not necessary.
Government representatives initially did not provide any further details about the plans. However, they stressed that current aid deliveries to the people of Gaza are “far from enough and far from fast enough.”
On Wednesday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel wanted to allow the import of aid supplies into the Gaza Strip by sea for the first time since the war began five months ago. Israel has reached a corresponding agreement with unspecified international institutions, the report said.
The humanitarian situation of the people in Gaza has been deteriorating dramatically for weeks. The bare necessities are missing. Representatives of the United Nations recently warned in the Security Council of the starvation of thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing ahead with the ground offensive in Gaza despite ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire and is restricting humanitarian aid. In view of the humanitarian catastrophe, the USA began supplying the civilian population in the Gaza Strip with aid supplies from the air over the weekend.
Attack on Hezbollah positions
Meanwhile, the Israeli army says it has shelled positions belonging to the Shiite militia Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The army said artillery and fighter jets had fired on the places from which Israel had previously been shelled. In the Israeli border area, from which most civilians have been evacuated for months, the towns of Rosh Hanikra and Jaara in the west as well as targets in the Upper Galilee further east were attacked from the neighboring country to the north. Israeli warplanes bombed targets in the area of the Lebanese towns of Aitarun and Aita Ash Shaab.
The evening before, a Hezbollah military facility near Matmura and an observation post near Jebbayn had been attacked from the air. According to its own statements, Hezbollah also shelled targets in Israel near the towns of Liman and Avdon. There was one death in Lebanon. No casualties were reported from Israel.
Since the Gaza war broke out, there has been daily shelling on the border between Lebanon and Israel. There have long been concerns that the war could spread to Lebanon. So far, however, both sides have adhered to the rule “As you are to me, I am to you” and have not escalated things any more than the other side.
Negotiations for a ceasefire: delegations leave
Israel is coming under increasing international pressure in the Gaza war because of the catastrophic humanitarian situation. South Africa submitted an urgent application to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to order Israel to allow aid into the sealed-off coastal area. The reason for this is “widespread famine,” according to a statement from the court in The Hague.
In the struggle for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, there are increasing signs that the talks will continue even after the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. Today, participants from Hamas and Qatar, which is acting as mediator, left the Egyptian capital Cairo, according to security sources at the airport. A few hours earlier, US representatives had also left Egypt.
Qatar, Egypt and the USA met in Cairo to negotiate a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip with Hamas. Israel initially did not have its own delegation on site. The mediators hope to reach an agreement by the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins around March 10th.
Egyptian state-affiliated broadcaster Al-Kahira News quoted an unnamed senior source as saying that negotiations will continue next week. In addition to a ceasefire, it is also about the release of Israeli hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas.
If the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt mediators fail, Israel is threatening a military operation in the city of Rafah during Ramadan. In Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, around 1.5 million Palestinians are currently seeking refuge from the fighting in other parts of the area in a confined space and under miserable conditions. Israel assured that it would bring civilians to safety before an offensive. Israeli officials believed Gaza’s Islamist Hamas leader Jihia al-Sinwar was not interested in a deal but hoped it would escalate tensions in the West Bank and Jerusalem during Ramadan, Wall Street reported Journal”. An invasion of Rafah could also lead to a larger conflict on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, it said.
Circles: Canada wants to resume UNRWA funding
After the terror allegations against the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, Canada wants to resume its funding despite investigations that have still not been completed. Diplomatic circles confirmed media reports to the German Press Agency in New York that Ottawa would soon announce that it would increase its funding for UNRWA. The Canadian public TV broadcaster CBC had reported that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government wanted to make a payment of the equivalent of more than 15 million euros as well as an extra sum. However, the step has not yet been officially announced. Canada, along with a number of donor nations, including Germany and the USA, froze its funding for UNRWA following serious allegations. Israel accused a dozen UNRWA employees in January of involvement in the Islamist Hamas’ October 7 terror attacks.