Efforts towards a truce in the Israel-Hamas war continued yesterday after a new proposal from the Palestinian militant group, which also called for more aid into Gaza, where famine threatens and the first food shipment by sea was unloaded.
Israel said it would send a delegation to Qatar for another round of talks on a possible deal, but also advanced plans for a military operation in Rafah, where most of Gaza’s population has sought refuge from more than five months of war and deprivation.
US charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) yesterday said its team had finished unloading almost 200 tonnes of food, the first shipment to arrive on a new maritime aid corridor from Cyprus.
Photo: AFP / Handout / Israeli Army
“All cargo was offloaded and is being readied for distribution in Gaza,” WCK said in a statement.
Agence France-Presse footage on Friday showed WCK’s partner, the vessel Open Arms, towing a barge with the aid close to the shore of north Gaza.
Open Arms had sailed from Cyprus on Tuesday.
WCK founder Jose Andres said the seaborne aid that reached Gaza is the equivalent of 12 trucks, but “we could bring thousands of tonnes a week.”
The UN has reported particular difficulty in accessing northern Gaza for deliveries of food and other aid.
Residents say they have resorted to eating wild plants and animal fodder, and some have stormed the few aid trucks that have made it through.
Multiple nations have begun daily aid airdrops over Gaza, and the new sea corridor is to be complemented by a temporary pier which US troops are on their way to build.
However, air and sea missions are no alternative to land deliveries, UN officials and aid groups say.
A spokesman for the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said early yesterday that 123 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours, including 36 during a strike on a house sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat, central Gaza.
Witnesses reported air strikes and fighting in the southern Gaza Strip’s main city Khan Yunis as well as areas of the north.
Netanyahu’s office on Friday said he had approved the military’s plan for an operation against Hamas in Rafah, where about 1.5 million people are sheltered, many in tents near the Egyptian border.
There were no details or a time line for the long-threatened operation.
The White House, which has said an assault on Rafah would be a “red line” without credible civilian protection measures, said it had not seen the plan.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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