Region

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — A Spanish charity ship taking food aid to Gaza left the Mediterranean island of Cyprus on Tuesday in hopes of opening a maritime corridor to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The Open Arms set sail towing a barge loaded with 200 tonnes of relief goods for the sea journey of about 400 kilometres, as Cyprus said it was readying a second ship.

"The departure of the first ship is a sign of hope," European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on social media platform X. "We will work hard together for many more ships to follow."

Heavy Israeli bombardment again rained down on Gaza, killing at least 80 people overnight, and dozens more were missing under the rubble, said the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

"At least 80 martyrs arrived at hospitals, the majority children, women and the elderly," it said in a statement.

As the flow of aid trucks from Egypt has slowed, a trend variously blamed on the war, the growing insecurity on the ground, and cumbersome Israeli inspections of cargo — Jordan and other Arab and Western countries have stepped up daily airdrops.

However UN and other relief agencies warn that parachuting in aid parcels is less effective and falls far short of the hundreds of truckloads needed every day to sustain the population of 2.4 million people.

The humanitarian crisis has gripped Gaza at a time Muslims have since Monday observed the month of Ramadan, where daytime fasts are traditionally broken with lavish evening iftar meals with family and friends.

In Gaza’s southern city of Rafah — now home to nearly 1.5 million people, many of whom have sought refuge in crowded shelters and makeshift tents — one man, Mohammad al-Masry, said this year the family had just “canned food and beans”.

Another displaced woman, Umm Muhammad Abu Matar from Khan Yunis, told AFP that this year, Ramadan has “the taste of blood and misery”.

Truce ‘not near’ 

Weeks of talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators failed to bring about a truce and hostage exchange deal ahead of Ramadan.

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said that, although talks between the parties continued, “we are not near a deal”.

Hamas has demanded a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a demand labelled “delusional” by Israel, which accuses the group of seeking to stoke unrest during Ramadan.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed, despite growing international opposition, to push on with the war.

In an interview with Fox News, he doubled down on his plan to send troops into Rafah near the Egyptian border, the last area so far spared ground operations.

“We can’t leave a quarter of the Hamas terror army in place, they’re there in Rafah,” the right-wing premier said, adding that “it’s either Israel or Hamas, there’s no middle way”.

He said Israel agreed with the United States on the need to “first enable the safe departure of the civilian population from Rafah before we go in”.

Lebanon, Yemen violence 

The worst ever Gaza war, now in its sixth month, has stoked anger and protests worldwide, most of them against Israel.

It has also sparked clashes involving Iran-backed armed groups in the region, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The Israeli army said Tuesday it had hit around 4,500 Hezbollah targets over the past five months in Lebanon and Syria, killing 300 fighters of the group and wounding more than 750.

The targets included “weapons storage facilities, military structures intended for Hizbollah’s offensive activity and operational command and control centres”.

New strikes on Tuesday on eastern Lebanon, far from the border, killed two people, Lebanese sources said, after Hezbollah said it had launched “more than 100” rockets at Israeli military positions.

Yemen’s Houthis have been attacking ships on the key Red Sea trade route leading towards the Suez Canal, in professed solidarity with the Palestinians, forcing many vessels to make the costlier journey around Africa.

US forces said Tuesday they had destroyed nearly 20 ballistic missiles and an underwater drone after the Houthis had fired two missiles, without causing casualties or damage, towards a merchant ship.

The Houthis said the attacks were “in support of the oppressed Palestinian people” and vowed that “military operations will be escalated... during the month of Ramadan”.

BEIRUT — Israeli strikes on eastern Lebanon killed one person on Tuesday, a security source said, in an escalation of cross-border fire with the powerful Hizbollah movement that has raised fears of spiralling violence.

Since the day after the Israeli war on Gaza erupted in October, Hamas ally Hizbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily fire across Lebanon's southern frontier, but several Israeli strikes have recently hit Hizbollah positions further north.

A Lebanese security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, said one person was killed and 10 others wounded in Tuesday's strikes.

It was not immediately clear if the person killed was a fighter or a civilian.

The strikes destroyed a building in Sarain, less than 20 kilometres from eastern Lebanon's Baalbek, a key Hizbollah bastion near the border with Syria.

Another strike hit a building in the nearby town of Nabi Sheet, the source added.

The Israeli army said in a statement that "fighter jets struck two Hizbollah military command centres in the area of Baalbek, deep inside Lebanon", adding that Hizbollah used the sites to store "significant assets used to strengthen its weapons arsenal".

The army said the strikes came in retaliation for Hizbollah rocket "launches toward northern Israel" earlier Tuesday.

Hizbollah had said it launched "more than a hundred Katyusha rockets" at two military bases in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

That barrage came "in response to the Israeli attacks on our people, villages and cities, most recently near the city of Baalbek and the killing of a citizen", the group had said in a statement.

On Monday, another Israeli air strike near Baalbek — around 100 kilometres from the border — killed one person, a security source had said.

The Israeli military had said its jets had hit two sites belonging to “Hizbollah’s aerial forces” in retaliation for strikes on the occupied Golan Heights over several days.

On February 26, Israeli strikes targeted Baalbek, killing two Hizbollah members, the first strikes on the Iran-backed group outside Lebanon’s south since the conflict erupted in October.

Earlier on Tuesday, Hizbollah said its chief Hassan Nasrallah met with Khalil Al Hayya, a leading member of Hamas’s political bureau.

They discussed ceasefire talks for the Gaza war, as well as attacks by Hamas’s regional allies to support its war efforts, the Hizbollah statement said.

Nasrallah is due to give a televised speech on Wednesday.

Hizbollah has repeatedly said it will only stop its attacks on Israel with a ceasefire in Gaza.

But Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant recently said any truce in Gaza would not change Israel’s goal of pushing Hizbollah out of southern Lebanon, by force or diplomacy.

Since the start of the Hamas-Israel war in October, at least 318 people, mainly Hizbollah fighters but also at least 54 civilians, have been killed in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally.

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Israel pressed on with its offensive against Gaza on Sunday with no truce in sight on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as a dire humanitarian crisis gripped the besieged Palestinian territory.

A Spanish charity ship with food aid prepared to sail from Cyprus to the coastal Gaza Strip, where the UN has repeatedly warned of famine.

Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required to meet basic humanitarian needs have been allowed into Gaza since October when Israel placed it under near-total siege.

The health ministry in Gaza said on Monday that at least 31,112 people have been killed in the territory during more than five months of war between Israel and Palestinian fighters.

The latest toll includes 67 fatalities over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 72,760 people have been wounded in Gaza since the war began on October 7 when Hamas fighters attacked Israel.

About 370 kilometres from Cyprus across the Mediterranean Sea, Mohammed Harara stood on the shores of Gaza, hoping for the aid to arrive.

“I’ve been waiting since this morning, because tomorrow is the start of the holy month of Ramadan and the situation is very tragic,” he said.

The non-governmental group Open Arms said its boat would pull a barge with 200 tonnes of food, which its partner the US charity World Central Kitchen would then unload on Gaza’s shores.

It was expected to depart “within the coming hours”, Cypriot government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis told Cyprus News Agency.

Weeks of talks involving United States, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have aimed for a six-week truce and the release of many of the hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.

The aim had been to halt the fighting by the start of Ramadan, which Saudi Arabia and several other Muslim countries said would begin on Monday after the sighting of the crescent moon.

Ramadan this year is “all pain”, said Ahmed Kamis, 40, in Rafah, where around 1.5 million people have tried to find refuge but are still at risk from Israeli bombing — and a ground operation which Israel has threatened into the southern city.

In Washington President Joe Biden, who faces growing criticism in America for his steadfast support of Israel as the civilian death toll in Gaza soars, issued a statement marking the start of the holy month.

“This year, it comes at a moment of immense pain,” Biden said.

“As Muslims gather around the world over the coming days and weeks to break their fast, the suffering of the Palestinian people will be front of mind for many. It is front of mind for me,” Biden added.

Both sides have blamed each other for failing to reach a truce deal, after Israel had demanded a full list of surviving hostages, and Hamas had called for Israel to pull out all its troops from Gaza.

A source with knowledge of the truce talks told AFP that “there will be a diplomatic push especially in the next 10 days” with a view to securing a deal within the first half of Ramadan.

 Exorbitant prices 

Biden on Saturday stressed his growing impatience with Israel’s right-wing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling broadcaster MSNBC that the Israeli leader “must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken”.

At this stage, said Biden, Netanyahu’s approach to the war was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel”.

Netanyahu, under pressure from desperate families of hostages still held in Gaza as well as critics of his government, on Sunday rejected Biden’s comments and said most Israelis back “the action that we’re taking to destroy the remaining terrorist battalions of Hamas”.

The UN has reported particular difficulty in accessing northern Gaza for deliveries of food and other aid.

What is available in the south is sold at exorbitant prices, residents say, making this Ramadan like no other.

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — A boat laden with food for Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza was "ready" to set sail from Cyprus, an NGO said, as fighting raged between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters ahead of Ramadan.

The sea route aims to counter aid access restrictions, which humanitarians and foreign governments have blamed on Israel, more than five months into the war which has left Gaza's 2.4 million people struggling to survive.

Hopes were fading fast for a pause in the fighting before Ramadan, which could begin as early as Sunday depending on the lunar calendar, as Israel accused Hamas of seeking to "inflame" the region during the Muslim fasting month.

US President Joe Biden said Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu's approach to the war was "hurting Israel more than helping Israel", during an interview with MSNBC broadcast Saturday.

Netanyahu “has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas” Biden said, but added that “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken”.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine, particularly in north Gaza where no overland border crossings are open.

In Rafah, in Gaza’s far south, “We can barely get water,” said displaced Palestinian woman Nasreen Abu Yussef.

Roughly 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge in the city, where Atallah al-Satel said he wanted an end to the war.

“We are just exhausted citizens,” said Satel, who had fled to Rafah from Khan Yunis.

Spanish charity Open Arms said its boat, which docked three weeks ago in Cyprus’s Larnaca Port, was “ready” to embark but awaits final authorisation.

It would be the first shipment along a maritime corridor from Cyprus — the closest European Union country to Gaza — that the EU Commission hopes will open on Sunday.

Open Arms spokeswoman Laura Lanuza told AFP that Israeli authorities were inspecting the cargo of “200 tonnes of basic foodstuffs, rice and flour, cans of tuna”.

US charity World Central Kitchen, which has partnered with Open Arms, has teams in the besieged Gaza Strip who were “constructing a dock” to unload the shipment, Lanuza said.

Meanwhile, the US Central Command said a US Army ship left Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia on Saturday carrying the “first equipment to establish a temporary pier” to receive aid off Gaza.

The Pentagon said Friday it would take up to 60 days to set up the temporary pier, which Biden announced the previous night.

With ground access limited, countries have also turned to airdropping aid, although a parachute malfunction turned one delivery deadly on Friday.

‘Only part of the solution’ 

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Saturday the number of deaths in Israel’s bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza had risen to 30,960, including 82 people killed in strikes over the previous day.

At least 23 children had died from malnutrition and dehydration, according to the ministry.

Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas began after the movement’s October 7 sudden attack on Israel.

The Israeli forces said another of its soldiers had died in Gaza, taking its overall losses to 248 since the start of ground operations.

The UN’s World Food Programme has warned that the volume of aid that can be delivered by sea will do little if anything to stave off famine in Gaza.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, in Larnaca on Friday, said a “pilot operation” would be launched in partnership with World Central Kitchen, supported by aid from the United Arab Emirates.

The US effort for a “temporary pier” off Gaza builds upon the maritime corridor proposed by Cyprus, senior US officials said.

Humanitarian workers and UN officials say easing the entry of trucks to Gaza would be more effective than aid airdrops or maritime shipments.

The US military said it airdropped more than 41,000 meals into Gaza on Saturday, and Canada has said it too will join aerial aid delivery missions.

But a steady flow of relief into Gaza was “only part of the solution”, said International Committee of the Red Cross chief Mirjana Spoljaric.

The warring sides must do more to “safeguard civilian life and human dignity”, she said, decrying the “unacceptable” civilian death toll.

‘Tough’ truce talks 

In their October attack, Gaza militants took about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, some of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes 99 hostages remain alive in Gaza and that 31 have died.

After a week of talks with mediators in Cairo failed to produce a breakthrough, Hamas’s armed wing said it would not agree to a hostage-prisoner exchange unless Israeli forces withdraw.

Israel has rejected such a demand.

On Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea had met CIA director William Burns on Friday “as part of the ceaseless efforts to advance another hostage release deal”.

Biden has acknowledged it would now be “tough” to secure a new truce deal in time for Ramadan.

Saturday’s Israeli statement accused Hamas of “entrenching its positions like someone who is not interested in a deal and is striving to inflame the region during Ramadan”.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel was preparing for “all possible operational scenarios” during the Muslim holy month.

On the ground in southern Gaza, the Israeli army said fighting persisted in the area of Khan Yunis. Hamas authorities reported Saturday more than 30 air strikes overnight.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh called for the speedy distribution of aid to Gazans and for the full opening of border crossings “to end the siege of our people”.

The war’s effects have been felt across the region, including off Yemen, where the US military said it and allied forces shot down 28 one-way attack drones fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels towards the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on Saturday.