The Muslim holy month of Ramadan began yesterday in Gaza with no truce in sight, as fighting raged between Israeli forces and Hamas militants, and a dire humanitarian crisis gripped the besieged Palestinian territory.
A Spanish charity ship with food aid was preparing to sail from Cyprus to the coastal Gaza Strip, where the UN has repeatedly warned of famine.
Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required to meet basic humanitarian needs have been allowed into Gaza since October last year, when Israel placed it under near-total siege.
Photo: AFP
About 370km from Cyprus across the Mediterranean Sea, Mohammed Harara stood on the shores of Gaza, hoping for the aid to arrive.
“I’ve been waiting since this morning, because tomorrow is the start of the holy month of Ramadan and the situation is very tragic,” he said.
Non-governmental organization Open Arms said its boat would tow a barge with 200 tonnes of food, which its partner the US charity World Central Kitchen would then unload on Gaza’s shores.
It was expected to depart “within the coming hours,” Cypriot government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis told Cyprus News Agency.
Jordanian, US, French, Belgian and Egyptian planes parachuted aid into northern Gaza on Sunday, but the UN’s aid coordinator for the area said that boosting supply by land would be the best way to get assistance to the territory’s 2.4 million people.
Some of the airdropped food packages smashed open on impact, leaving residents picking through the dirt to salvage what they could, images showed.
The war has killed 31,045 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where vast swathes have been reduced to a bombed-out wasteland.
Weeks of talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have aimed for a six-week truce and the release of many of the hostages taken on Oct. 7 last year that militants are still holding. In return, Israel would free Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails.
The aim had been to halt the fighting by the start of Ramadan. Both sides have blamed each other for failing to reach a deal, after Israel demanded a full list of surviving hostages and Hamas called for Israel to pull out all its troops from Gaza.
A source with knowledge of the truce talks said that “there will be a diplomatic push, especially in the next 10 days” with a view to securing a deal within the first half of Ramadan.
The holy month this year is “all pain,” said Ahmed Kamis, 40, in Rafah, where about 1.5 million people have tried to find refuge, but are still at risk from Israeli bombing.
Israel has also threatened to launch a ground operation into the southern city.
In Washington, US President Joe Biden, who faces growing criticism for his steadfast support of Israel as the civilian death toll in Gaza soars, issued a statement marking the start of Ramadan.
“This year, it comes at a moment of immense pain,” Biden said. “As Muslims gather around the world over the coming days and weeks to break their fast, the suffering of the Palestinian people will be front of mind for many. It is front of mind for me.”
In Saudi Arabia, King Salman called in his Ramadan message for the international community to “uphold its responsibilities to put an end to these heinous crimes, and ensure the establishment of safe humanitarian and relief corridors.”
In a message of his own, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his “solidarity and support to all those suffering from the horrors in Gaza. In these trying times, the spirit of Ramadan is a beacon of hope, a reminder of our shared humanity.”
Biden on Saturday stressed his growing impatience with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling broadcaster MSNBC that he “must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”
At this stage, Netanyahu’s approach to the war was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel,” Biden said.
Netanyahu on Sunday rejected Biden’s comments and said most Israelis back “the action that we’re taking to destroy the remaining terrorist battalions of Hamas.”
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