Gaza Strip humanitarian crisis

A Spanish charity boat taking food to Gaza left Cyprus on Tuesday in hopes of opening a maritime corridor to carry sorely needed aid to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

A ship carrying 200 tonnes of aid for Gaza left Cyprus on Tuesday in a pilot project to open a sea route to deliver supplies to a population aid agencies say is on the brink of famine.

Palestinian medical personnel in the war-torn Gaza Strip have been subjected to severe maltreatment, including being blindfolded, stripped and repeatedly beaten, after an Israeli raid at a hospital last month, a BBC report said on March 12.

A ship laden with relief supplies for Gaza was preparing to depart Cyprus on Saturday as part of efforts to aid a population on the brink of famine.

The European Commission has said a maritime aid corridor between Cyprus and Gaza could start operating as early as this weekend in a pilot project run by an international charity and financed by the UAE.

Even before President Joe Biden announced in his State of the Union address the plans for providing aid to Gaza by sea, the Army's 7th Transportation Brigade and other units were scrambling to pull equipment together.

A top European Union official is in Cyprus on Friday to inspect preparations to send desperately needed aid to war-ravaged Gaza by sea, just hours after President Joe Biden announced that the US military will set up a temporary port off Gaza's Mediterranean coast to support deliveries.

Even then, only some of the most basic needs of the population would be met.
Therefore, the United Nations has warned that famine in the Gaza Strip is "almost inevitable" without decisive action, reports Reuters.

Children in northern Gaza are succumbing to hunger, according to the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. WHO's recent visits to Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals revealed distressing conditions, with 10 children having died from malnutrition.

The health authorities in Gaza have reported that the number of Palestinians killed in the ongoing conflict with Israel has surpassed 30,000, according to a report from BTA. The Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Territory released a statement confirming 79 casualties in Israeli airstrikes overnight, although this information has not been independently verified.

A coalition of over 50 journalists, primarily representing British media outlets, has issued an open plea to both Israel and Egypt, advocating for unrestricted entry to Gaza for foreign journalists. The signatories include well-known figures such as Jeremy Bowen and Mishal Husain from the BBC.