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Gaza aid shipments to resume soon, Cyprus says, as 1,000 tons of food await delivery

Aid shipments to Gaza are expected to resume soon from Cyprus, officials said on Wednesday, reports Reuters.

According to the news agency, Cyprus has about 1,000 tons of aid destined for starving or severely hungry people in Gaza stored on the island. It is being held there after a decision by World Central Kitchen (WCK) to pause and review activity in the territory after the deaths of its workers on 1 April.

The US plans to set up a dock, with a target date of 1 May, on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast that will enable aid deliveries which will be pre-screened in Cyprus, with Israeli oversight. With that jetty in place, Cyprus expects aid to resume soon, Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides said.

“We are in communication with countries we have worked with from the outset, so that very soon humanitarian aid from Cyprus will resume after the completion of the US project in Gaza,” he said.

The WCK had been operational in Gaza since October, using land, air and more recently the sea, to get aid in to supply its network of more than 60 community kitchens.

Workers were midway into unloading a second shipment of aid through the Cyprus route when their three-vehicle convoy was hit by Israeli strikes.

After WCK announced the pause, a convoy of ships taking part in the mission returned to Cyprus on 3 April 3 with undelivered aid, said Reuters. Initially at anchorage, the ship carrying food was brought to port for offloading after bad weather in Cyprus this week.

“The plan is to store the aid until WCK decides what it wants to do,” a Cypriot official told Reuters.

ShareUN says that 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza not getting adequate food or nutrition

According to the UN, 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza are not getting adequate food or nutrition.

In a release published by the UN’s Population Fund (UNFPA), that was updated on 2 April, the UN agency warned that about 155,000 pregnant women and new mothers were “struggling to survive”. It said they were “suffering from hunger and the diseases … amid life-threatening shortages of food, water and medical care”.

At the time of UNFPA’s update, only three maternity hospitals remained in the Gaza Strip, and these were “overwhelmed with patients”, the UN agency said.

“If women do survive pregnancy and childbirth, they must return to overcrowded shelters and informal settlements that lack clean water and hygiene facilities,” added the UN agency for sexual and reproductive health.

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Updated at 15.13 CEST

Current and former US officials, who have spoken to the BBC, say that US president Joe Biden’s pressure on Israel after last week’s deadly attack on aid workers did not go far enough. They also said that it would fail to stem the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

A the tougher line by Biden, after seven workers from food charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed by Israeli strikes, was “too little, too late”, according to Annelle Sheline, an official working in human rights who quit the state department in protest a fortnight ago.

She told the BBC that the White House “could have done this months ago and prevented famine in northern Gaza”.

The BBC report also highlights the views of four current officials at varying levels of seniority in different government departments who spoke to the broadcaster on condition of anonymity. According to the BBC, two of the officials have roles in areas with direct links to foreign policy, including on Israel and Gaza.

Tom Bateman, the BBC’s state department correspondent writes:

The officials’ accounts are the latest sign of deepening disquiet and a growing readiness within the ranks of the Biden administration to question the moral and legal basis of US backing for Israel, a bedrock of Washington policy going back decades across administrations.

Some criticised the support as apparently unconditional, citing Washington’s $3.8bn (£3bn) a year package of military assistance to Israel and the potential sale of $18bn worth of F-15 fighter jets.”

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Israel has agreed in ceasefire talks in Egypt to concessions about the return of Palestinians to the north of Gaza, but believes Hamas does not want to strike a deal, Israeli officials said on Wednesday.

Reuters reports that two officials with knowledge of the talks said that under a US proposal for a truce, Israel would allow the return of 150,000 Palestinians to north Gaza with no security checks.

In return, they said, Hamas would be required to give a list of female, elderly and sick hostages it still holds alive.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment, say Reuters. Hamas said on Tuesday that the latest proposal passed on by Eqyptian and Qatari mediators did not meet demands, but that it would study it further before responding.

Israel’s assessment is that Hamas does not want to strike a deal yet, the two Israeli officials told the news agency.

Hamas wants an end to the Israeli military offensive, a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and permission for displaced Palestinians to return home.

Israel’s immediate aim is to secure the release of hostages seized by Hamas in its 7 October attack. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas no longer controls Gaza or threatens Israel militarily.

Share122 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, says health ministry

The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 122 Palestinians were killed and 56 injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.

According to the statement, at least 33,482 Palestinians have been killed and 76,049 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.

The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

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In the UK, three people have been charged after a pro-Palestine demonstration outside Labour leader Keir Starmer’s home, the Metropolitan police have said.

On Tuesday demonstrators hung a banner outside Sir Keir’s house that read: “Starmer stop the killing”, surrounded by red hand prints. Protesters then laid rows of children’s shoes in front of the Labour leader’s door to signify children killed in Gaza.

The group that carried out the demonstration, known as Youth Demand, describe itself as a “new youth resistance campaign fighting for an end to genocide”.

A Metropolitan police statement said: “Two women and a man arrested in Kentish Town on Tuesday 9 April have been charged with public order offences and will appear at Westminster magistrates court.”

“This power stops the harassment of a person at their home address if an officer suspects it is causing alarm or distress to the occupant,” the statement added.

The three protesters have been charged with public order offences.

In a video posted to X, Youth Demand called for a two-way arms embargo on Israel, saying that weapons manufactured in the UK were being “used to cause genocide’’.

Starmer, who leads the opposition in parliament, has been criticised by some for his approach to Israel’s actions in Gaza since 7 October, which has led to more than 30,000 deaths and a humanitarian crisis.

Last October, he said that Israel had “the right” to withhold water and power from Palestinians which prompted some Labour councillors to resign. He later denied making these comments, saying: “I was not saying that Isreal had to right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines.”

The UK government has faced increasing pressure to suspend arms export licences to Israel after seven aid workers, including three British nationals, were killed by an Israeli airstrike.

Starmer has reiterated calls for the government to publish legal advice it has received on whether Israel is violating international law in Gaza, with the party’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy stating arms sales should be halted if there has been a “serious breach” of international law.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak condemned the protest on social media. He posted to X: “I don’t care what your politics are, no MP should be harassed at their own home. We cannot and will not tolerate this.”

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Updated at 14.15 CEST

Eid marked in Gaza as prayers held outside ruins of mosque in Rafah

Eid al-Fitr is being observed by Muslims across the world today, including in Gaza.

Eid prayers were held outside the ruins of a mosque in Rafah to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Some displaced worshippers knelt on plastic tarpaulin outside tents where they are living after Israeli offensives destroyed their homes and infrastructure

Palestinians visit cemeteries and pray outside destroyed mosques at Eid – video report

Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum is reporting from the ground in Gaza. He said: “Over the past few hours, the situation has been extremely calm on the ground. We have not recorded any military attacks on Gaza. This is considered to be one of the few periods in months that the Strip hasn’t been widely hit by the Israeli army.”

Dr. Khalil Al-Dikran, the spokesperson of the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, told CNN that a residential home was struck overnight by an Israeli airstrike that killed 14 people, mostly women and children, adding that 30 others were seriously injured.

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Updated at 15.43 CEST

Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:

Palestinian Muslims walk at al-Aqsa compound on Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, in Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday. Photograph: Ammar Awad/ReutersThis picture taken on Wednesday from Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip shows buildings across the border fence which have been destroyed during six months of fighting and relentless bombardment. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty ImagesPalestinians, who were displaced due to Israeli attacks and took refuge at a school, perform Eid al-Fitr in Rafah, Gaza on Wednesday. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesPalestinians start to return to their homes after Israel’s withdrawal leaving behind huge destruction in Khan Younis, Gaza. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesRelatives of hostages held in Gaza and their supporters protest outside the Israeli prime minister’s office as the war cabinet meets in Jerusalem, on Tuesday. Photograph: Maya Alleruzzo/APShare

Israeli strikes hit Gaza on Wednesday as Muslims marked the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan and after US president Joe Biden labelled Israel’s approach to the war a “mistake” (see 07:29 BST).

AFP reports that Israeli forces kept up combat operations and airstrikes on Gaza on Wednesday, a day after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed no let up in the campaign to destroy Hamas and bring home the hostages.

Netanyahu insisted on that “no force in the world” would stop Israeli troops from entering Gaza’s far-southern city of Rafah which is packed with displaced Palestinians.

According to AFP, Netanyahu’s threat came amid talks in Cairo involving US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators for a truce and hostage release deal.

ShareIsrael’s ‘disproportionate response’ in Gaza risks ‘destabilising Middle East and… the entire world’, says Spanish PM

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez warned on Wednesday that Israel’s “disproportionate response” in the Gaza war with Hamas risks “destabilising the Middle East, and as a consequence, the entire world”, reports AFP.

Sánchez also insisted that the recognition of a Palestinian state, long resisted by Israel and its key allies, is “in Europe’s geopolitical interests”.

Sánchez had already raised the subject of statehood during a visit last week to Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, when he told reporters that Spain could recognise Palestine as a nation by the end of June.

“The international community cannot help the Palestinian state if it does not recognise its existence,” Sánchez told lawmakers on Wednesday, according to AFP.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez warned on Wednesday that Israel’s ‘disproportionate response’ in the Gaza war with Hamas risks ‘destabilising the Middle East, and as a consequence, the entire world’. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

Since the start of the war in Gaza more than six months ago, the socialist premier has pushed for Europe to accord such recognition. His criticism of the Gaze war has also raised tensions with Israel.

Speaking on Wednesday, Sánchez said Israel’s “absolutely disproportionate response” had “overturned decades of humanitarian law and threatened to destabilise the Middle East and, as a consequence, the whole world”.

In late March, Sánchez signed a joint statement alongside his Irish, Maltese and Slovenian counterparts on the sidelines of an EU summit announcing they were ready “to recognise Palestine” when “the circumstances are right” if that could help bring about a resolution to the conflict.

Starting Thursday, Sánchez is due to visit Poland, Norway and Ireland before welcoming Portugal’s leader to again discuss the issue, Spanish government spokesperson Pilar Alegría said on Tuesday, according to AFP.

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Updated at 12.28 CEST

Rory Carroll

Palestine’s ambassador to Ireland has welcomed Dublin’s promise to formally recognise Palestinian statehood and hopes other EU members will follow.

“I hope that this recognition by Ireland will be a reality soon, and Ireland will lead other EU states to follow suit,” Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid told RTÉ on Wednesday. “Ireland has always stood on the right side of history, justice, humanity international law – so I expected that Ireland will lead in the recognition of the state of Palestine.”

Asked if Ireland should have already done so she said: “Yes.”

On Tuesday the foreign minister, Micheál Martin, earned sustained applause in the Dáil when he promised formal recognition once “wider international discussions” were complete. “Be in no doubt recognition of a Palestinian state will happen,” he said.

On 22 March Ireland and Spain – two of Israel’s sharpest critics in the EU – were joined by Malta and Slovenia in a vow to recognise Palestine when “the circumstances are right”.

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Daniel Hurst

The Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong, has said a “pathway out of the endless cycle of violence” in the Middle East can only come with recognition of “a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel”.

Some commentators have interpreted the speech as a hint that Australia could recognise Palestinian statehood in the near term, although Wong has clarified that the government has made no such decision.

So what did Wong actually say about a two-state solution, what was she silent about, and how does this fit in with what Australia’s allies are doing? Guardian Australia’s foreign affairs and defence correspondent, Daniel Hurst, has answered these questions in this explainer:

ShareLebanese man accused of moving money to Hamas killed, security source tells AFP

A Lebanese man under US sanctions for allegedly funnelling money from Iran to Hamas has been killed just outside Beirut, a security source told AFP on Wednesday.

The body of Mohammad Sarur was found on Tuesday in a villa in the mountain town of Beit Mery, the source told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

He had been struck by more than five bullets and was found in possession of an undisclosed sum of money that the killers did not touch, the source added.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported late on Tuesday that the body of a 57-year-old Lebanese man, identified by initials that correspond to Sarur’s, had been found in an area near Beit Mery.

The security source confirmed to AFP that Sarur was subject to US sanctions, and said he worked for financial institutions belonging to Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, a Hamas ally.

In August 2019, the US Treasury announced sanctions against several people including Sarur, accusing them of funnelling “tens of millions of dollars” from the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards through Hezbollah in Lebanon “to Hamas for terrorist attacks originating from the Gaza Strip”.

The Treasury said Sarur “served as a middle-man” between the Guards’ al-Quds force and Hamas “and worked with Hezbollah operatives to ensure funds were provided” to Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

“As of 2014, Sarur was identified as in charge of all money transfers” between the al-Quds force and the Qassam Brigades, the US Treasury added.

He also “has an extensive history working at Hezbollah’s sanctioned bank, Bayt al-Mal”, the US Treasury said. Washington blacklisted Bayt al-Mal in 2006.

Last month, US Treasury official Jesse Baker met with political and financial officials in Beirut, asking them to prevent funds from transiting through Lebanon to Hamas, media reports said at the time.

ShareIsrael threatens to strike Iran directly if Iran launches attack from its territory

Israel’s foreign minister threatened on Wednesday that its country’s forces would strike Iran directly if the Islamic Republic launched an attack from its territory against Israel, as tensions between the two countries flare after the killings of Iranian generals in a blast at the Iranian consulate in Syria, reports the Associated Press (AP).

“If Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack in Iran,” Israel Katz said in a post on X in both Farsi and Hebrew.

The remarks came after Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated early on Wednesday a promise to retaliate against Israel over the attack on its consulate in Damascus earlier this month.

Tehran holds Israel responsible for the strike that killed 12 people. Israel has not acknowledged its involvement, though it has been bracing for an Iranian response to the attack, a significant escalation in their long-running shadow war.

Khamenei spoke at a prayer ceremony celebrating the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, saying the airstrike was “wrongdoing” and akin to an attack on Iranian territory.

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Updated at 11.07 CEST

WHO works to help identify bodies at al-Shifa hospital after Israeli military assault

The World Health Organization (WHO) teams arrived at Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza on Monday to help identify bodies in the ruins, reports the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The Israeli military said it battled with Palestinian militants in what was Gaza’s biggest hospital during two weeks of fierce fighting last month, with the WHO saying that patients were trapped inside.

Palestinian nurse Maha Sweylem told AFP that she had not seen her husband, Abdel Aziz Kali, since he was arrested by the Israeli military during the assault. She does not know if he is dead or alive.

According to AFP, the nurse recalled how the Israeli army had quickly surrounded the hospital last month and then used loudspeakers to order that “everyone must surrender. Game over”.

Palestinian forensic and civil defence recover human remains at the grounds of al-Shifa hospital, on Monday. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

“Then, they started shooting at all the entrances, preventing anyone from moving,” she said. “I spent four days there with my two little daughters, without any food or drink. They cried from hunger. When they arrested my husband, he had not eaten for three days.”

AFP asked the Israeli army if they knew of Kali’s whereabouts, but there was no immediate response.

The Israeli military have long accused Hamas and Palestinian militants of using hospitals and other medical facilities as hideouts and command posts, and their patients as shields. Hamas have denied this.

Motasem Salah, director of the Gaza Emergency Operations Centre, told AFP the scenes on Monday at the sprawling medical centre were “unbearable”.

“The stench of death is everywhere,” he said, as a digger went through the rubble and rescue workers pulled decomposed bodies from the sand and ruins.

Salah said Gaza lacked the forensic experts needed to help identify the dead or determine what had happened to them. So they are relying on “the expertise of the WHO and OCHA (UN humanitarian office) delegation”, he said.

They are trying “to identify the decomposed bodies and the body parts that were crushed” from wallets and documents, Salah told AFP.

Relatives were also there “to ascertain the fate of their sons, whether they have been killed, are missing, or have been displaced to the south,” said Amjad Aliwa, the head of Al-Shifa’s emergency department. He said they wanted to identify “their sons and ensure they receive a proper burial”.

A United Nations team inspects the grounds of Al-Shifa hospital which was reduced to ruins by a two-week Israeli raid, on Monday. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

“However, we lack the necessary equipment, and time is not on our side,” Aliwa told AFP. “We must complete the job before the bodies decompose.”

Salah said the psychological impact of this “unwatchable” process on the families is unbearable, in another WHO video from the scene shared with AFP.

“Seeing their children as decomposing corpses and their bodies completely torn apart is a scene that can’t be described. There are no words for it.”

AFP video images from Al-Shifa on Monday showed the remains of several bodies being recovered from one of the courtyards of the hospital and put into body bags.

Several worried relatives walked among what the WHO said were “numerous shallow graves” outside the devastated emergency department and the administrative and surgical buildings.

“Many dead bodies were partially buried with their limbs visible,” it said in a statement after its first visit to the site Friday.

“Safeguarding dignity, even in death, is an indispensable act of humanity,” the WHO insisted.

A “place where life was given is now a place that now reminds [us] only of death,” said Athanasios Gargavanis, the WHO surgeon leading its mission on Monday.

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