A first boat loaded with aid unloaded tons of food this Saturday, March 16, in the Gaza Strip to try to avoid a famine, at a time when negotiations are resuming for a truce in the war between Israel and Hamas.
Information to remember
⇒ All cargo from the first aid boat to arrive in Gaza has been unloaded
⇒ NGOs denounce “systematic abuses” against Palestinians in Israeli detention
⇒ Hamas-Fatah standoff over the appointment of a new Palestinian Prime Minister
Gaza: Cargo from first aid boat unloaded
The cargo of the first humanitarian aid boat which arrived on Friday March 15 in the Gaza Strip from Cyprus has been unloaded and will be able to be distributed to the population threatened with famine after more than five months of war, the NGO said this Saturday. responsible for the operation. “The entire cargo has been unloaded and is being prepared for distribution to Gaza,” World Central Kitchen said in a statement sent to AFP.
This cargo of nearly 200 tonnes of food was transported from Cyprus on a barge towed by the boat of the Spanish NGO Open Arms, which left on Tuesday from the Cypriot port of Larnaca. It was then connected to a temporary jetty and loaded onto twelve trucks. It must be used to prepare meals for the inhabitants of the northern Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian situation is particularly catastrophic.
NGOs denounce “systematic abuses” against Palestinians in Israeli detention
Against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, Israeli prisons have a record number of Palestinians, subjected to “systematic abuse” and sometimes torture, denounce Israeli NGOs, calling on the international community to act. Members of these organizations traveled to Geneva this week to highlight this major “crisis” in the country’s prisons, where, according to them, nine people have died since October 7.
“We are extremely concerned,” Tal Steiner, executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, said in an interview with AFP. “We are facing a crisis,” she insisted, stressing that “there are nearly 10,000 Palestinians detained by Israel, […] an increase of 200%”. According to Tax Steiner, the situation has worsened considerably since the start of the war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas.
Tension surrounding the appointment of a new Palestinian Prime Minister
Fatah and Hamas clashed Friday evening over the appointment of a loyalist of Mahmoud Abbas to the post of Prime Minister, called upon to reform the Palestinian Authority in the context of the possible “post-war” in Gaza. President Abbas on Thursday appointed one of his close friends, the economist Mohammad Mustafa, as prime minister in an attempt, according to analysts, to convince the international community of his desire to reform his Palestinian Authority.
But on Friday, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, as well as Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP, Marxist) slammed this appointment, accusing Mahmoud Abbas of being “disconnected” from reality.
Rafah offensive: White House wants to see Israel’s plan
The White House “would like to have the opportunity to see” the Israeli army’s plan for an offensive in Rafah, to which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just given his agreement, an American spokesperson said Friday. “We will not support a plan that does not take into account the million and a half Palestinians” refugees in this area of the south of the Gaza Strip, warned, once again, John Kirby, spokesperson for the Security Council. American national security.
In Gaza, there are no more “normal-sized babies”
Doctors no longer see normal-sized babies” in Gaza, a UN official protested on Friday, “terrified” for the 180 women, starving and dehydrated, who give birth every day in the Palestinian territory. “Personally, I left Gaza this week terrified for the million women and girls in Gaza, for the 650,000 of childbearing age, and especially for the 180 women who give birth every day,” said Dominic Allen, head of the Palestinian territories of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), during a video press conference from Jerusalem.