The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) announced on Wednesday the death of one of its employees in the bombing of a warehouse in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, as the international community searches for to diversify the delivery routes for humanitarian aid in the enclave threatened by famine.
“At least one UNRWA employee was killed and twenty-two others injured in an Israeli strike on a food distribution center in eastern Rafah”, announces the agency in a press release. The health ministry of the Gaza Strip, administered by Hamas, for its part, reported four deaths in the ” bombing raid “ from the warehouse.
Since the start of the war, at least 165 members of the UN agency have been killed and more than 140 of its centers, including many schools, have been affected, the agency recalls in the press release.
“Today’s attack on one of the few remaining UNRWA distribution centers still functioning in the Gaza Strip comes at a time when malnutrition, and even famine in some areas, is spreading”deplores Philippe Lazzarini, director of the organization, in a press release. “Every day, we give our contact details to the parties in conflict. The Israeli army received the coordinates, including those of this center, yesterday [mardi] »he adds.
The Israeli army, for its part, claims to have “eliminated a terrorist” of Hamas named Mohammad Abou Hasna, whose name appears on the list of victims established by the Ministry of Health. “Hasna was a combat support officer in the military wing of Hamas. He was also involved in [le détournement] humanitarian aid and its distribution to Hamas terrorists »writes the army in a press release.
More children were killed “in four months” in Gaza Strip than in four years of war worldwide, says UNRWA
More children have been killed in the Gaza Strip in four months of war with Israel than in four years of conflicts across the world, the head of the UN agency was indignant a little earlier, on X, judging the numbers ” dizzy “. According to the organization, 12,193 minors were killed in conflicts around the world between 2019 and 2022. According to the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, 12,300 children died there between October and the end of the month of February.
In twenty-four hours, at least 88 people were killed in Israeli bombings which particularly affected the south of the Gaza Strip, devastated and besieged by Israel since October 9, according to the ministry. In the sixth month of the war triggered by the bloody attack by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, the death toll, according to him, stands at 31,272, mostly civilians, and the UN fears “widespread famine”.
Protecting civilians must be “number one priority,” says Antony Blinken
“We expect the Israeli government to make this issue a priority. Protecting civilians, getting people the help they need, that must be the number one priority, even as they do what is necessary to defend the country and deal with the threat posed by Hamas.”American Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the press.
With no truce on the horizon and while aid by land under Israeli control is only arriving in trickles, several countries as well as the European Union (EU) have decided to transport it by sea and air.
The World Application
The Morning of the World
Every morning, find our selection of 20 articles not to be missed
Download the app
A first boat loaded with 200 tonnes of food left the Cypriot port of Larnaca for Gaza on Tuesday, using a corridor set up by the EU and several countries. This boat from the Spanish NGO Open Arms, which operates at very low speed, was about 260 kilometers from Gaza on Wednesday, according to the VesselFinder website.
Cyprus, approximately 370 kilometers from Palestinian territory, announced that a second shipment, “much more important”, was in preparation. Four American army boats also left the United States with around a hundred soldiers and the equipment necessary for the construction of a pier and a quay in Gaza. The trip should take approximately thirty days and the installation will be ready “within sixty days”according to American authorities.
Amnesty International denounces the impotence of the international community
The project is “a sign of powerlessness and weakness on the part of the international community”judged the secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, on Wednesday during a press conference in Madrid. “The international community must be ready to hold Israel accountable”she said.
For around ten days, several Arab and Western countries, including the United States, have been dropping meals and medical aid daily, especially in the North, where the situation is particularly desperate, but these means cannot replace the land route. , estimates the UN.
“When we study alternative routes to deliver aid, by sea or by air, we must remember that we must do so because the usual land route is closed and starving the population is used as a a weapon of war »said the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
According to the Hamas health ministry, at least twenty-seven people, mostly children, have died of malnutrition and dehydration in the Gaza Strip, already subject to a total Israeli blockade since the 2007 takeover of this area. territory by Hamas.
The Israeli army announced a ” pilot project “ which allowed the unprecedented entry of six aid trucks from the World Food Program (WFP) directly into the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, but the WFP estimates that 300 a day are needed to meet the needs of the 2 .4 million inhabitants.
Since the start of the war, aid has entered Gaza via two terminals on Israel’s southern border. Despite international pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains determined to continue his offensive against Hamas, considered a terrorist group by Israel, the EU and the United States.
Hamas member killed in Lebanon
“Israel will win this war whatever the cost. And, to win it, Israel must destroy the last Hamas battalions in Rafah”where 1.5 million Palestinians are crowded, the vast majority of whom are displaced, he reaffirmed.
Faced with the intransigence of the protagonists, the mediating countries – United States, Qatar, Egypt – are unable to secure a truce agreement accompanied by the release of hostages, which was hoped for during Ramadan, which began this year. week. “We are not close to an agreement”Qatar said.
On the Israeli-Lebanese border, the violence also knows no respite. On Wednesday, Hamas announced the death of a member of its armed wing, Hadi Mustapha, and another person in an attack attributed to Israel on a car in southern Lebanon. Two suspected members of the armed wing of Hamas were also killed Wednesday morning during an Israeli raid in Jenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank, according to corroborating sources.