As hopes for a truce during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan waned, a ship carrying over 200 tons of food for Gaza departed Cyprus on Tuesday as part of a trial effort to develop a new maritime channel to bring help to Palestinians on the verge of hunger.
Witnesses saw the humanitarian vessel Open Arms departing the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, pulling a barge that included protein, rice, and flour. The trip to Gaza takes around fifteen hours, although it might take up to two days if a hefty tow barge is used. Gaza is located 320 kilometers (just over 200 miles) to the northwest of Cyprus.
General Frank S. Besson, a U.S. military vessel, was reportedly on its way to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via sea. Additionally, the US military reported that it had parachuted 25,900 water bottles and over 27,600 meals into the northern Gaza area. Assistance is hardly meeting the necessities for the quarter of the people living in the pulverized enclave who the U.N. believes are at risk of famine. Israel has been charged by the UN of obstructing supplies to Gaza.
Humanitarian Crisis Intensifies in Gaza
Seven humanitarian air drops were placed on Monday, according to Jordanian official media, with participation from the US, Egypt, France, Belgium, and Jordan.
According to Israeli media, Morocco was also supposed to participate in the initiative. The majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forced to flee their homes due to the fighting; many of them are living in improvised tents in the southern city of Rafah with minimal access to food or basic medical services.
When crowds gathered in Kuwait Square in Gaza City early on Tuesday to await relief trucks, Israeli gunfire claimed seven Palestinian lives and injured several more, according to Palestinian media. Antonio Guterres, the head of the UN, has called for a ceasefire, the release of captives, and the elimination of barriers to life-saving assistance. He warned that the Gazan people may find themselves in “an even deeper circle of hell” if Israel launched the planned attack on Rafah.
According to Israeli estimates, fighters from Hamas, the organization that rules Gaza, attacked Israel on October 7 and murdered 1,200 people. They also seized 253 hostages. This attack ignited one of the deadliest battles in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Israel was investigating on Monday if it had killed Hamas’s deputy military chief during an attack in Gaza. In five months of fighting, Marwan Issa, if verified, will be the highest-level member of the Islamist terrorist movement to be slained by Israel.
Issa, often referred to as the “Shadow Man” because of his ability to remain hidden, was one of three senior Hamas commanders who organized the attack on Israel on October 7 and is said to have been in charge of Hamas’s military activities ever since.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, said that Israel had struck the Al-Nusseirat refugee camp in central Israeli planes targeted the subterranean facility used by two Hamas commanders, Issa and another commander in charge of Hamas weaponry in Gaza, as part of a coordinated operation with Israel’s Shin Bet security organization, according to Hagari.
Fading ceasefire hopes
In Cairo, talks to end Israel’s conflict with Hamas have not yet reached a consensus. Israel maintains that its objective is still to destroy Hamas and that any truce must be short. Only as part of an agreement to stop the fighting, according to Hamas, would it free hostages. Palestinian health authorities claimed that an Israeli attack on a residence in Gaza City on Monday killed 16 people and injured dozens more, shattering hopes for a Ramadan calm.
Additionally, two Palestinians were murdered by Israel in an attack on a home in the southern city of Khan Younis while the inhabitants were breaking the fast on the first day of Ramadan, according to Gaza health officials. The Israeli military reported that its forces killed around 15 terrorists in central Gaza and that its commandos targeted locations in Khan Younis thought to be frequented by Hamas militants, though it did not immediately comment on the instances.
Elsewhere, pro-Palestinian organizations persisted in becoming noticeable. Hezbollah, a group based in Lebanon, claimed to have launched multiple drones on an Israeli-occupied Golan Heights outpost on Monday.
Early on Tuesday, the U.S. Central Command said that the Houthis of Yemen, who are supported by Iran, launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles into the Red Sea at the merchant ship Pinocchio. No casualties or property damage were recorded.
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