With international partners
USA plans its own port for Gaza aid
March 7, 2024, 6:31 p.m
The US military is to set up a temporary port on the coast of the Gaza Strip. The civilian population in need will receive help by sea, says Washington. US President Biden wants to explain the plans in his State of the Union address.
According to government sources, US President Joe Biden wants to announce that he has ordered the US Army to set up a port in the Gaza Strip in order to quickly bring more humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory by sea. The president will announce this “tonight in his State of the Union address,” a senior administration official told reporters in Washington.
The US military had previously dropped aid supplies over the Gaza Strip from transport planes for the third time in a week. “These drops are part of sustained measures,” said the US Central Command (Centcom), which is responsible for the Middle East. However, given the situation in the Gaza Strip, these deliveries are far from enough to alleviate the suffering there. According to the UN World Food Program (WFP), all 2.2 million people living there are on the brink of famine.
In recent days, US Defense Department spokesman Pat Ryder said the possibility of a maritime corridor for aid was being examined. The US government is also continuing to talk to Israel about how aid supplies could get to the Gaza Strip more quickly.
99 hostages still in Hamas hands
The war in the Gaza Strip has now been going on for five months. The trigger was the major attack by the terrorist organization Hamas on Israel on October 7th, in which, according to Israeli information, around 1,160 people were killed and 250 others were kidnapped as hostages. A number of hostages were released in an exchange with Hamas prisoners. Israel believes that 31 of the remaining hostages are already dead, while 99 other hostages remain in the hands of Hamas.
In response to the Hamas attack, Israel has since taken massive military action in the Gaza Strip, with the declared aim of destroying Hamas. According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, at least 30,800 people have been killed so far.