War between Israel and Hamas: First shipment of aid leaves the US-built floating dock in Gaza

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A shipment of humanitarian aid left a port in Cyprus on Thursday morning and was headed to the U.S.-built dock in Gaza, the first delivery to the newly built ramp, the foreign minister said. from Cyprus.

Relief is desperately needed, and the United Nations says The population of Gaza is on the brink of famine. and while Israeli troops have ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza. Earlier this week, Israel sent tanks to seize the nearby Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, closing a vital border entry point needed to bring aid to the battered enclave.

It remains uncertain whether Israel will launch a full invasion of Rafah as international efforts to achieve a ceasefire continue. Israel has said an assault on Rafah is crucial to its goal of destroying Hamas after the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that left 1,200 dead and 250 taken hostage and kidnapped in Gaza.

The United States, which opposes an invasion of Rafah, has said Israel has not provided a credible plan to evacuate and protect civilians now crowded into Rafah. The war has killed more than 34,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, and driven about 80% of Gaza’s population, 2.3 million Palestinians, from their homes.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an attack. total assault on Rafahout of concern for the well-being of more than 1 million civilians taking refuge there.

Biden, in an interview with CNN, said the United States was still committed to defending Israel and would provide Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive weapons, but that if Israel enters Rafah, “we are not going to supply the weapons or artillery shells. used.”

In response, far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir implied in a post on social platform X that Hamas loves Biden, using a heart emoji in the tweet. Ben Gvir has pushed for a punishing military response and threatened to leave the government if Israel does not carry out a wide-ranging military operation in Rafah.

The US ship Sagamore, loaded with much-needed humanitarian assistance, left the port of Larnaca early Thursday with the aim of transferring as much aid as possible to Gaza through the sea corridor, Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said. .

The ship’s voyage comes about two months after Biden gave the order to build the large floating platform several miles off the coast of Gaza to serve as a launch pad for deliveries, as not enough aid was arriving through land crossings, which require strict controls by Israel. and by air drops.

The U.S. military has completed construction of the temporary pier and causeway, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Tuesday, but plans to move it to shore were on hold due to weather and other logistical issues.

Singh told reporters that the US military ships and the assembled dock were in Ashdod port and that strong winds and waves made it too dangerous to install the dock on Gaza beach.

A Cyprus official told The Associated Press that if conditions did not allow the ship to unload directly at the dock, it would load smaller ships, which would transport the aid directly to Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the operation.

Still, aid workers say aid arriving by sea will not be enough to alleviate the terrible humanitarian suffering in Gaza and that the most effective way to deliver aid is by land.

But the closure this week of the Rafah crossing and the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing cut off the entry of food, supplies and fuel for aid trucks and generators.

International aid groups warned Wednesday that a distribution network is at risk of collapsing across the territory because fuel shipments to Gaza were cut. Israel’s threat to invade Rafah, where many of the aid groups have their warehouses and staff, is also further disrupting distribution, the groups said.

Israel said it reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing on Wednesday, closed after Hamas mortars killed four Israeli soldiers nearby in an attack on Sunday, but aid groups said no trucks were entering the Gaza side.

Trucks arriving from Israel must be unloaded and cargo reloaded onto trucks in Gaza, but no workers in Gaza can reach the facilities to do so because it is too dangerous, the UN says.

Meanwhile, attacks continued across Gaza and on Wednesday night an Israeli airstrike on a residential building killed eight people, including four children, according to hospital records. The attack hit a residential building in the Tel al-Sultan area, west of Rafah.

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Mednick reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.