The first ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza was on its way Thursday to a floating platform built by the U.S. military. The plan is for cargo to be transferred at the pier to smaller U.S. boats that will deliver it to shore.
The Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a main entry point for aid, has been shut down since Israel’s military took control of the Palestinian side early Tuesday.
Civilians in Rafah have been thrown into panic and chaos by the possibility of a full-scale Israeli invasion of the overcrowded city. Tens of thousands of displaced and exhausted Palestinians have packed up their tents and other belongings and fled Rafah for other parts of Gaza.
“Where are we supposed to go? Where is the world, that’s just watching us?” said Ahmad Abed, who has an 8-month-old daughter. “It’s like we’re sheep.”
The war in Gaza has driven around 80% of the territory’s population of 2.3 million from their homes and caused vast destruction to apartments, hospitals, mosques and schools across several cities. The death toll in Gaza has soared to more than 34,500 people, according to local health officials.
The U.N. says northern Gaza is already in a state of “full-blown famine.”
The war began Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others. Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
Currently:
— What are the latest obstacles to bringing aid into Gaza, where hunger is worsening?
— Biden says U.S. won’t supply weapons for Israel to attack Rafah, in warning to ally.
— Israel says it reopened a key Gaza crossing after a rocket attack. The U.N. says no aid has entered.
— Has Israel followed the law in its war in Gaza? The U.S. is due to render a first-of-its-kind verdict.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s the latest:
ISRAELI ACTIVISTS OPPOSED TO HUMANITARIAN AID FOR GAZA BLOCK MAJOR HIGHWAY
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli activists opposed to sending humanitarian aid to Gaza have blocked a major highway in southern Israel, snarling traffic and leading to at least a dozen arrests, according to a protest group leading the efforts.
Over the past week, activists with the Tzav 9 organization have blocked trucks that arrived from Jordan bound for Gaza.
“These trucks are taking food to Hamas, and Hamas are murderers, rapists and terrible, terrible people,” said Ruben Frankenburg, as he placed himself in front of a truck bound for Gaza near the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel. He added that Israel was being “forced by the Americans to give them this food.”
Another protester claimed the humanitarian aid was allowing Hamas to continue to fight. “There’s no other place in the world that one side gives the supplies to the other side, it’s crazy, it’s nuts,” said protester Yonatan Godalis, as he stood blocking an 18-wheeler and holding an Israeli flag.
The protests have caused traffic jams across the country, including shutting down parts of the country’s main highways. On Thursday, activists also blocked the road near the town of Mitzpe Ramon, halting traffic up Israel’s iconic desert highway and a main artery toward the south and the Gaza Strip. The protests have caused delays and headaches for drivers but no aid has been halted from reaching the crossings, according to COGAT, the Israeli military branch responsible for handling the humanitarian aid.
ISRAEL RAIDS NAZARETH OFFICES OF AL JAZEERA
TEL AVIV — Israel raided the Nazareth offices of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite news network, days after the government shuttered the network’s offices in Israel.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Communications said forces confiscated equipment from the office in northern Israel that had been used to transmit live broadcasts of Al Jazeera on Wednesday.
“Israel won’t let Hamas broadcast from here,” Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi wrote on X.
Al Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel ordered the local offices of Al Jazeera to close Sunday, escalating a long-running feud between the broadcaster and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line government as Doha-mediated cease-fire negotiations with Hamas hang in the balance.
Since the order, the broadcaster has moved many of its English-language service correspondents operating in Israel to Amman, Jordan. Others still operate from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The extraordinary order, which includes confiscating broadcast equipment, preventing the broadcast of the channel’s reports and blocking its websites, is believed to be the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet operating in the country.
FIRST SHIPMENT OF AID TO THE U.S.-BUILT FLOATING PIER IN GAZA LEAVES CYPRUS
NICOSIA, Cyprus — A shipment of humanitarian aid has left a port in Cyprus and is on its way to a U.S-built pier in Gaza, the first delivery to the newly built ramp, Cyprus’ foreign minister said Thursday.
The U.S. vessel, loaded with much-needed humanitarian assistance, departed from the Larnaca port with the aim of transferring as much aid to Gaza as possible through the maritime corridor, said Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos.
The trip comes about two months after U.S. President Joe Biden gave the order to build the large floating platform several miles (kilometers) off the Gaza coast that will be the launching pad for deliveries.
ISRAELI DRONE STRIKE ON CAR IN LEBANON KILLS 4, GROUP SAYS
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Civil Defense paramedic group says an Israeli drone strike on a car in a Lebanese village near the border with Israel killed four people.
Hezbollah announced hours later that three of its fighters were killed Thursday adding that in retaliation for their death in the strike in the village of Bafliyeh it attacked Israeli military posts in Kfar Giladi, northern Israel, with explosive drones.
Hezbollah claimed in a statement that it struck an operations room and inflicted casualties among the troops.
Hezbollah started attacking Israeli army posts along the Lebanon-Israel border a day after the Israel-Hamas war broke out on Oct. 7.
Since then, more than 350 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 275 Hezbollah members and more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. In Israel, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed.
Foreign officials have been visiting Lebanon over the past month in attempts to bring calm to the border, but Hezbollah has repeatedly said it will not stop fighting until there is a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
