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A humanitarian ship carrying food and other essential items approaches Gaza after days of delays amid dire humanitarian circumstances.
Here’s how things are going on Wednesday March 13, 2024:
Fighting and humanitarian crisis
- A humanitarian ship carrying food and other essential items to Gaza, which set sail from Cyprus, was approaching the Palestinian enclave after days of delays.
- The departure comes after the announcement that Cyprus, the European Union, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom were working jointly to establish a maritime corridor to deliver aid to Gaza.
- Separately, Israeli forces launched air attacks throughout the Gaza Strip, killing and injuring dozens of people, including 10 in Deir el-Balah, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel would “finish the job in Rafah,” reaffirming that a ground operation would continue in the southern Gaza city.
- British Foreign Secretary David Cameron called for “answers from the Israelis” in response to a BBC report revealing that Israeli soldiers had subjected Palestinian medical staff in Gaza to mistreatment, including in blindfolding them, detaining them, stripping them naked and beating them repeatedly during a hospital raid in February.
𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 | The WFP delivered enough food for 25,000 people to Gaza City early Tuesday, in the first successful convoy to the north since February 20.
With the people of the north #Gaza on the verge of starvation, we need deliveries every day + we need entry points directly into the north. pic.twitter.com/RGxymQXlR9
– WFP Media (@WFP_Media) March 12, 2024
Regional tensions
- Lebanese group Hezbollah says two of its fighters were killed in the Bekaa Valley after Israeli military planes launched attacks on the region for the second day in a row.
- EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was “not a natural disaster” and accused Israel of using famine as a “weapon of war”.
- Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly has pledged $1 million to support investigations into allegations of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinian women. The move comes two days after Joly said Canada would provide $1 million to organizations supporting survivors of sexual violence during the Hamas attacks on October 7.
- Acting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is traveling to Israel and Egypt on Wednesday to discuss the Middle East crisis.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- Israeli forces stormed the grounds of the government hospital in Jenin, killing one Palestinian and injuring five others, according to the Wafa news agency.
- Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir expressed support for Israeli soldiers, amid outrage over the killing of a Palestinian boy near the refugee camp checkpoint in Shu’fat.
