Aid agencies and charities are pushing efforts to rush food to war-torn Gaza by land, air and sea after a European Union (EU) top diplomat said starvation of the embattled Palestinians had become ‘a weapon of war’.
The Israel-Hamas conflict has caused more than 31,000 deaths, mainly women and children, reduced vast areas to a rubble-strewn wasteland with most likely many more bodies buried beneath wrecked buildings, and sparked warnings of famine in the territory of 2.4 million people.
The EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told the UN Security Council on Tuesday March 12th that the humanitarian crisis ‘is man-made’.
He said: ‘If we look at alternative ways to provide support, it’s because the land crossings have been artificially closed,’ adding ‘starvation is being used as a weapon of war’.
Gaza’s dire food shortages after more than five months of war have killed 27 people through malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children, according to its health ministry.
Young Palestinians At Risk
UN aid officials have warned that at least 576,000 people faced catastrophic levels of food insecurity and one in six children under the age of two in the north were suffering from acute malnutrition.
‘The child deaths we feared are here, as malnutrition ravages the Gaza Strip. These tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable and entirely preventable.’
Adele Khodr, Regional director of the UNICEF
And Adele Khodr, the regional director of the UNICEF said: ‘The child deaths we feared are here, as malnutrition ravages the Gaza Strip. These tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable and entirely preventable.’
In the most recent developments regarding aid supplies a Spanish vessel, the Open Arms, is currently on its way to Gaza from Cyprus, after setting sail on its 400km voyage on Tuesday towing a barge with 200 tonnes of aid, in a first voyage intended to open a sea corridor.
Organisers US charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) said work is underway to build a makeshift jetty to receive the ship.
The aid agency said: ‘World Central Kitchen dispatched our first maritime shipment of humanitarian aid to Gaza. After weeks of preparation, our team in Cyprus loaded almost 200 tons of food onto the Open Arms boat that will deliver the desperately-needed aid to Gaza.
‘Once there, we will distribute the food to communities on the brink of famine. WCK has provided more than 35 million meals to displaced Palestinians since serving our first plates of food in the region.
‘We are working with the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus, and the international community to open this maritime aid corridor so as many meals as possible reach Palestinians in need.’
The flow of aid trucks from Egypt into Gaza has slowed recently, due to Israeli security checks of cargo, and concerns over looting of supplies.
Also Arab and western nations have airdropped food parcels via parachutes, and Morocco has sent a planeload of relief supplies via Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.
The UN World Food Programme, trying an alternative land route from southern Israel, sent an initial six aid trucks into worst-hit northern Gaza.
It said it had ‘delivered enough food for 25,000 people’ and added: ‘With people in northern Gaza on the brink of famine, we need deliveries every day. We need entry points directly into the north.’
Weeks of talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators had aimed to bring a truce and hostage release deal before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but missed the Monday deadline.
Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said that, although talks continued: ‘We are not near a deal’.
