RAFAH: As fighting continued in Palestine on Friday, the US military said that first lorries came to help Gaza which has suffered from wars via a temporary dock.
US Central Command informed the media that “trucks carrying humanitarian assistance began moving ashore” via the long-awaited pier, one day after it was linked to a Gaza beach.
“It is an ongoing multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinians in Gaza via a purely humanitarian maritime corridor,” it added.
The US army had also posted photographs of supplies being loaded onto a barge at Ashdod’s port in Israel stating on X social media site that no American troops landed.
Centcom says around 500 tonnes of aid will be brought through this pier over the next few days to Gaza where UN officials have warned there could be famine soon.
Gaza is located about 360km (225 miles) away from Cyprus, which is easternmost member of the European Union. This shipment contains food stocks provided by EU countries such as 88 thousand cans of foodstuffs from Romania, said the 27-nation bloc.
While welcoming it, however, the EU called upon Israel to “increase deliveries by land and open additional crossings without delay.”
According to UN agencies only land routes can provide enough aid for needs of people living in Gaza strip.
Nevertheless, it has welcomed these deliveries pointing out its consent with regards facilitating entry into Gaza through floating pier.
Attacks on aid trucks
This move by Mr Biden was made public in March when Israel was stopping ground shipments of aid into Gaza leading to more suffering among Gazans having already been killed during previous attacks.
Still lifeline for civilians trapped inside this tiny Mediterranean enclave where conditions are grim continues to become more complex with time going by
Aid drops were stepped up by Western and Arab governments and as a result some people died due falling crates or stampedes or while trying taking packages out of sea water
For instance, the Israeli military said that on Thursday night dozens of Israelis set a truck carrying aid to Gaza on fire in the occupied West Bank, making it second such incident within this week
Media reports alleged that Israeli settlers were behind the attack.
Earlier this week, right-wingers attacked at least seven trucks supplying aid to Gaza from Jordan at the Tarqumya crossing with the West Bank.
The war erupted after an October 7th attack by Israel which left over 1,170 people dead, mostly civilians according to Israeli official figures as well as AFP calculations.
In retaliation for Hamas’ action against it, Israel has killed no less than 35303 in Gaza of whom majority are civilians as reported by health ministry in its area controlled by Hamas.
Bodies of hostages recovered
Those being held in Gaza include 37 who army says are dead out of total of 125 taken hostage from Israel.
On Thursday evening late, army stated that they had discovered bodies of three hostages in a war ravaged part of Gaza strip who were “murdered” by their captors on 7th October.
“They took our Israeli citizens hostage during the Hamas massacre on October 7 and murdered them” during bloody raid on Nova music festival,” he said.
“Maybe the most ferocious” fighting since the start of the war was experienced by the Israeli army, an official said to AFP.
Helicopter strikes and shelling in and around the town’s refugee camp were reported by witnesses.
Six bodies were recovered after a strike on a house in Jabalia, Gaza’s civil defense agency said.
Witnesses also claimed that there had been strikes in Rafah, , south of Gaza where Israel has launched a ground invasion despite nearly unanimous international opposition including from Washington.
“This activity will intensify,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday. “Additional forces will enter” – into Rafah area he added.
UN humanitarian office reports that more than 640,000 people out of 1.4 million who were sheltering in Rafah have fled other areas as they anticipate imminent Israeli assault.
On Friday, thirteen governments from Western countries, some of them traditionally pro-Israeli appealed to it not to launch any extensive operation against Rafah because this could have catastrophic consequences for ordinary people living there.
Official sources disclosed that seventeen American doctors trapped in Gaza by Israel’s closure of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt have been evacuated by US government on Friday
According to an anonymous source familiar with the matter, U.S. diplomats helped arrange for them to exit through Kerem Shalom crossing into Israel instead .
Palestine Recognition Gathers Pace
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is set to travel to Middle East for talks on Gaza conflict over this weekend.
Kirby announced that Sullivan would meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Saturday and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday .
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared yesterday he would next week announce when Madrid along with several EU partners plans to recognize Palestine as statehood .
“I am confident that I shall be able to specify before parliament on May 22nd when Spain will recognize [the] Palestinian State,” Sanchez stated .
The prime minister had said in March that Spain and Ireland, along with Slovenia and Malta, had agreed to take their first steps towards recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, seeing a two-state solution as essential for lasting peace.
Israel on Friday responded to South African claims that it has increased its military campaign against Rafah by calling the country’s allegations “genocide” at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
“It is not genocide,” lawyer Gilad Noam told the court.
