Ship with urgent aid heading to Gaza

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — A Spanish aid boat was en route to Gaza on Wednesday, opening a new maritime corridor intended to allow deliveries of desperately needed food to the Palestinian territory ravaged by months of conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The food on the aid ship was collected by the charity World Central Kitchen and is being transported by the Spanish aid group Open Arms. The ship departed from the eastern Mediterranean island country of Cyprus, towing 200 metric tons of relief goods, and is expected to arrive in Gaza in two to three days.

In a sign of worsening humanitarian conditions, the Hamas-run territory's Health Ministry said 27 people have died of malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children.

A weekslong diplomatic push had sought to bring about a ceasefire and increase aid deliveries before the start of the holy month of Ramadan on Monday, but key mediator Qatar said on Tuesday the warring sides were not close to striking a deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expand the offensive into the strip's southern border city of Rafah, where half of Gaza's population has sought refuge, and to keep fighting until Hamas has been dismantled and all the captives it is holding have been returned.

A deepening rift between US President Joe Biden and Netanyahu over Gaza red lines has raised concerns about potential restrictions on military aid if Israel carries out the ground offensive.

This tension has led the United States to consider using its influence to push Israel to do more to facilitate humanitarian relief to Gaza and prevent civilian casualties, US officials said. Biden's main leverage is the US supply of weapons, which he has been reluctant to use despite Netanyahu's defiance.

In addition, Biden's 2024 reelection bid has complicated his efforts to craft a strategy. Aides recognize that he needs to avoid giving Republicans an issue to seize on with pro-Israel voters, while also halting the erosion of support from some progressive Democrats dismayed by his strong backing for Israel, which relies heavily on US-made equipment.

Fresh bombardments

Fresh bombardments could be heard in southern Gaza, an Agence France-Presse journalist said on Wednesday, and the Health Ministry reported another 70 people killed in overnight strikes.

Aid groups have been warning of the risk of famine in besieged Gaza for weeks, and the United Nations has reported particular difficulty in accessing the territory's north for deliveries of food and other humanitarian supplies.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army announced a pilot project for delivering aid directly into the north, saying six World Food Programme aid trucks had entered through a new crossing.

Morocco, meanwhile, sent a plane loaded with 40 tons of relief supplies directly to Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, a diplomatic source said, in a bid to bypass bottlenecks on the Egypt-Gaza border.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, called on Tuesday for an immediate cease-fire, labeling the conflict "a war on children".

In a post on X, Lazzarini cited UN and Gaza Health Ministry figures that suggest more children have been killed in Gaza between October and February "than the number of children killed in four years of wars around the world combined".

About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas surprise attack on Israel on Oct 7, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive have killed at least 31,272 Palestinians in Gaza, the territory's Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

The conflict has also brought a surge in violence in the occupied West Bank, where a 15-year-old Palestinian boy riding a bicycle stabbed two Israeli security personnel at a checkpoint on Wednesday before he was shot dead, police said.

Agencies Via Xinhua