Fighting continues between Israel and Hamas despite the start of Ramadan. UNRWA says the Gaza Strip is in the grip of famine and reiterates calls for an “immediate ceasefire”.
It is a month of Ramadan which promises to be tense in the Middle East. Despite the efforts of negotiators, no truce agreement has been reached between Israel and Hamas, and the fighting in the Gaza Strip continues..
From now on, one place concentrates all the attention: the Esplanade of Mosques or Temple Mount for the Jews, and the third holiest site of Islam, the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Last week, Hamas twice called on Palestinian Muslims to “walk on Al-Aqsa”. For its part, Jordan warns that restrictions imposed by Israel on the faithful’s access to the compound could lead to a “explosive situation”.
The UNRWA agency says the Gaza Strip is in the grip of famine and reiterates its calls for “immediate ceasefire” during the holy month. Since the start of the conflict, at least 31,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 72,600 injured according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
On the Israeli side, the human toll stands at 1,139 dead, and dozens of people are still held captive in the Palestinian enclave.
Egypt steps up its humanitarian aid drops to Gazans. Every day, several army planes deliver tens of thousands of packages filled with food and medicine to the population of the Palestinian enclave.
A humanitarian aid ship with 200 tonnes of water and food has left Cyprus for the Gaza Strip. The ship chartered by the Spanish NGO Open Arms set sail on Tuesday from the port of Larnaca, Cyprus. The organization works with another association, World Central Kitchen, already present in Gaza, which must receive the aid and distribute it.
It has been more than five months since Nikos Christodoulides, the Cypriot president, proposed the creation of a maritime corridor to bring aid to Gaza. If Israel officially gave its agreement at the end of December 2023, the Europeans did not see this project moving forward until Joe Biden’s recent declarations on March 7. During his State of the Union speech, the President of the United States announced the implementation of such an initiative and the creation of a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza to transport there more quickly and more massively help.
On Monday evening, new clashes were recorded in eastern Lebanon. According to security sources, it was an Israeli airstrike that targeted buildings belonging to Hezbollah.
“Israeli plane targets former Hezbollah building near Dar al-Amal hospital”said one of these sources, adding that the Israeli air force had “led another raid on a hangar east of Baalbeck”. The strikes were confirmed by a second security source.
Exchanges of fire are almost daily between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian Hamas at war since October 7 against Israel in the Gaza Strip.