2024-03-14 11:02:02
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EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell has accused the ‘famine’ situation in Gaza of being used as a weapon of war. He described the lack of access to relief aid inside Gaza’s borders as a ‘man-made’ disaster.
A Spanish ship has sailed from Cyprus to Gaza carrying much-needed food supplies. But the UN has noted that this maritime relief cannot be a substitute for providing relief aid by land.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that an attack will be launched in southern Gaza.
Road transport is the most effective means of providing rapid relief aid to war-torn areas. But aid agencies say only a fraction of the aid required by Israeli restrictions can get in.
Obstacles to road movement
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Gazans waiting for food
Now the focus has shifted to sea and air routes as an alternative to road relief. On Tuesday, for the first time in three weeks, the UN stepped in to help northern Gaza. Some trucks with relief goods under the World Food Program used the overland route.
Relief trucks used the Israeli military road along the border with Gaza, UN relief coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories Jamie McGoldrick told Reuters news agency.
This has provided enough food for 25,000 people in Gaza City. “Food supplies will continue to increase, but there will need to be adequate road access to ensure the steady delivery of relief aid,” said World Food Program spokesperson Shaza Moghrabi.
Israel says it is not responsible for the food shortage in Gaza. Because Israel has said that two lanes have been opened for relief trucks to come and go in the southern part. But at the UN in New York on Tuesday. In his address to the Security Council, Borrell said, “The reason for the food crisis in the Gaza Strip is the lack of a land route.”
“We are dealing with people who are fighting for their lives. Relief is needed on a humanitarian basis inside Gaza, and the EU is fighting as hard as possible to make it possible,” he said.
He went on to say, “The humanitarian crisis is man-made, and as we think about alternative ways of delivering relief by sea and air, we must remember that the natural way of delivering relief by land has been artificially closed.”
“Starvation is being used as a weapon of war here, we condemned it when it happened in Ukraine and now it is happening in Gaza. We condemn it again,” he said.
Gaza in the grip of famine
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Gazans carrying relief supplies
Borrell’s comments came as the UN warned that at least 576,000 people in Gaza, a quarter of the population, were on the brink of famine.
At least 27 people have died of malnutrition and dehydration in hospitals there in the past two weeks. Many of them were children, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said.
Now the Spanish ship ‘Open Arms’ is coming to render assistance. It left Larnaca just before 9am on Tuesday morning with 200 tonnes of food.
As the aid ship sails out to sea, Palestinians working at the World Central Kitchen will build a dike in an undisclosed part of Gaza’s coast that will be used to land the relief supplies.
US warship General Frank S. Besson is heading to the Middle East. The World Central Kitchen Administration stated that it was loading temporary shipbuilding equipment and that their project was not related to the ship.
Israel has welcomed the use of the sea route to deliver relief. Israel has announced that it will help provide relief to Gaza while its forces continue to fight against Hamas.
‘Military action will continue’ – Israel
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Benjamin Netanyahu
“Israel will advance its military operation into Rafah, the southern city of Gaza, which is close to the border with Egypt,” Netanyahu confirmed on Tuesday.
“We will finish our work in Rafah while civilians are moving out of war-torn areas,” he said in a video speech at a conference of the pro-Israel, American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Cameron has urged Israel to open the port of Ashdod, one of the country’s three main cargo ports south of Tel Aviv, to Gaza for aid supplies by sea.
The war in Gaza began on October 7 when the Hamas militant group attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.
More than 31,180 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Weeks of talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have failed to produce a ceasefire or a hostage exchange deal.
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